What would Hugh Hefner be without his playmates..? Some might say a creepy old man donned in a smokers jacket, slippers, and a pipe. What would Jeremy Hefner be without his playmates..? A sore luck loser, as his bullpen destroys what was a solid start for the right hander as the Mets lose to the Marlins 7-5.
Last night at Citi Field the winds were swerving and so was Jeremy Hefner's curveball. He was getting great action on that curve, which at times resembled something you might see playing whiffle ball. Hefner gave the Mets 6 strong innings giving up just one earned run, with 5 hits, only 2 walks, and 3 strikeouts. His only blemish of the evening was a solo homerun to Greg Dobbs in the 2nd inning. He left in the 6th trailing 1-0, getting absolutely no run support from his teammates. ( The Mets hitters stranded base runners in every inning up to that point.)
Terry Collins gave the ball to his bullpen in the 7th inning and the game promptly became out of reach shortly after that. Greg Burke and Scott Rice gave up a combined 5 runs and when the pipe smoke cleared it was 6-0 Fish. One of my biggest concerns out of spring training was this unproven bullpen. I'm hoping last night was an aberration, and not a sign of things to come, because let's face it, the Mets do not have the offensive firepower to come back from a 6 run deficit.
Kudos to the Mets for trying though. They didn't lay down and kept fighting, scoring 3 in the bottom half of the 7th thanks to Daniel Murphy's 3 run blast to the opposite field, cutting the lead in half. The Marlins added an insurance run in the 9th off of Latroy Hawkins. The Mets tried to stage a late rally in the 9th but to no avail as Justin Turner weakly grounded to first to end the game.
The Mets have now lost two in a row after winning their first two games. It is a bit disconcerting losing to a Marlins team that basically had a fire sale during the offseason, getting rid of half their roster. Miami came into Citi Field with an 0-3 record, fresh off a schalacking by the Washington Nationals. The Mets need to get all the wins they can against inferior teams like the Marlins, before the big boys start coming to town. They'll try and right the ship this afternoon. Probable starters are RHP Nolasco for Miami and LHP Niese for N.Y. First pitch at 1:10 pm. Let's go Mets!
