Mets Swept By Bottom-Feeding Rockies

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Final Score: Colorado Rockies: 1 New York Mets

Mets Swept by Bottom-Feeding Rockies

Even the presence of an Olympic gold medalist in Gabby Douglas couldn’t turn the fortunes of the Mets, who suffered a sweep at the hands of the lowly Colorado Rockies Thursday afternoon after falling 1-0.  It was one misplay that led to the Mets demise this afternoon, even after another stellar MLB debut from a rookie.  The loss puts the Mets 11 games under .500 and into fourth place in the NL East.

Collin McHugh was making his MLB debut today in place of the injured Johan Santana; what an appearance it was for the 25 year old McHugh.  McHugh gave up a game opening double to Charlie Blackmon, but stranded him on third. 

McHugh would allow only one other hit and one walk, which was semi-intentional to Carlos Gonzalez in his 100 pitch effort.  McHugh tossed seven shutout innings, striking out nine.  The nine strikeouts is the second most in a debut in franchise history, second to Matt Harvey’s 11 earlier this season.

McHugh’s final stat line was seven innings pitched, surrendering only two hits and one walk while striking out nine.  He is the third pitcher in franchise history to toss seven-plus shutout innings in his major league debut.  He is also the first pitcher since 1900 to throw seven-plus innings while striking out nine-plus batters to not get a win.

The game was lost in the eighth inning this afternoon, as Tyler Colvin roped a line drive at inexperienced centerfielder Jordany Valdespin off Bobby Parnell.  Valdespin broke in on the ball at first and it ended up landing over his head.  He was making only his fifth career start in centerfield and 23^rd overall appearance as a professional, all coming this season between the majors and Triple-A Buffalo. 

Chris Nelson followed the Colvin double with an RBI single, giving the Rockies all they would need for the win. 

The Mets offense struggled yet again, as starter Tyler Chatwood and relievers Adam Ottavino, Rex Brothers, Will Harris and Matt Belisle combined to blank the Mets.  The Mets went 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position and stranding 12 base runners all together.  The Mets were shut down the whole series by the pitching staff with the worst team ERA at 5.31.  The Mets were able to muster only five runs in four games against the Rockies.

The Mets will take on another bottom-feeding team in the Houston Astros starting Friday night at 7:10 P.M. ET.  Jon Niese (10-6, 3.82 ERA) will take the mound against Jordan Lyles (2-10, 5.70 ERA) on Meringue night at Citi Field.