Mets Give One Away to Angels

So now it is two straight games the Mets have just given to their opponents. Thursday it was on that balk against the Braves. Friday it was shoddy defense against the Angels.

In the top of the second, the Angels scored the first run of the game on an errant throw that Justin Turner airmailed to first. The teams exchanged single runs over the next inning and a half to tie the game at two.

It stayed that way until the sixth until Jose Reyes botched a relatively easy grounder with two outs and a runner on first that was inexplicably ruled a hit. Reyes will tell you he should have fielded it cleanly and flipped to second for the third out. The next batter doubled to make it 3-2.

Down 4-3 in the ninth, Jordan Walden walked the first two batters but was able to strike out the next three (Carlos Beltran looked particularly foolish as Walden had him set-up from the start with a devastating slider).

The defense has been quite porous these days. Lucas Duda kept Thursday’s fateful tenth inning alive by going after a ball he shouldn’t have touched, and Daniel Murphy made that disputed error at third last Saturday against the Pirates that led to a 3-2 loss.

It’s another reason Ike Davis and David Wright cannot come back soon enough. Davis is quite accomplished at first, and Wright makes the difficult plays at third — although he sometimes botches the easy ones, usually on throws when he has too much time.

So  now the Mets are two games under .500 — time to get back on the winning track.