Mets Swept Out of Colorado

It would have been really nice for the Mets to take the final game of this West Coast road trip. But they did not, as they were swept by the Rockies.

Yoenis Cespedes led off the second inning with a home run to right center. The solo shot was his 12th homer of the season.

The Rockies tied the score in the bottom of the inning thanks to a misplay by Michael Conforto. With one out, Carlos Gonzalez hit a liner to left. Conforto misjudged it and it sailed over his glove. It was ruled a double, but an error would have been more appropriate. After all, Conforto made a mistake on a catchable ball. In any case, Gonzalez was on second and moved to third on a fly out. DJ LeMahieu singled to plate him to make it 1-1.

But the Mets came right back in the third. Eric Campbell led off with a double. Jacob deGrom singled up the middle to score Campbell. Asdrubal Cabrera singled to move deGrom to third. Conforto, making up for his fielding miscue, singled to score deGrom to give the Mets a 3-1 lead.

Gonzalez homered in the sixth to cut the Mets lead to 3-2.

deGrom was pulled from the game at 102 pitches, with a runner on second and one out in the seventh. Jim Henderson promptly allowed a home run to Ryan Raburn to give the Rockies a 4-3 lead.

deGrom allowed three runs on four hits in his 6.1 innings. He walked three and struck out only three. deGrom has yet to strike out more than six batters in a game this season; his velocity is down, perhaps a cause for concern.

Juan Lagares pinch hit for Conforto in the eighth inning because a lefty was in the game. The move worked, as Lagares doubled. Cespedes was intentionally walked, an unusual move because it put the potential tie-breaking run on base. But Rockies manager Walt Weiss wanted to face Lucas Duda with a lefty on the mound. Duda hit a little nubber to third. Lagares avoided the tag (even though Arenado did not even attempt a tag) and Nolan Arenado threw to first for the out. But Lagares was called out for running out of the baseline for an inning-ending double play. Replays showed that was really not the case; the second straight game the Mets were victimized by a poor call.

Campbell singled with two outs in the ninth and David Wright came in to pinch hit. but he could not be the hero, grounding out to end the game.

The Mets lose 4-3. They went 4-7 on the trip; not the way they wanted to head into their first meeting with the Nationals.