August 16th - Mets 5, Padres 2

Friday night at Petco Park, The Mets jumped all over new Padre import Ian Kennedy as the Mets beat the Padres  5-1. In the top of the 2^nd Eric Young Jr. gave the Mets a 1-nothing lead on an rbi ground out. After that it was an air show at Petco.  In the top of the 3^rd the Mets made it a 3-nothing lead on back to back homers by Marlon Byrd and Ike Davis. For Byrd his 19^th on the year for Davis his 7^th.  In the 4^th, Daniel Murphy took advantage of Kennedy walking Met’s starter Jon Niese hitting his 10^th homer on the year, a 2 run shot,  to cap the Met scoring. Niese in his 2^nd start back since coming off the DL looked strong; going 6 innings allowing just 6 hits 1 run, a solo homer by Will Venable in the 3^rd, he walked one and struck out a season high 9. Niese earns his 2^nd straight win improving to 5-6 on the year and lowering his era to 4.25. The Padres staged a mini-rally in the 8^th when they got to Scott Rice for their second run in the game in the form of an rbi single by  Yonder Alonso. Carlos Torres came in retired three straight to get out of the jam and shut them down. LaTroy Hawkins pitched the 9^th and earned his 4^th save. Ian Kennedy was victimized by the drawn in fences at Petco, going 4 2/3’s yielding 7hits and all 5 runs were earned. He takes the loss falling to 4-9. Offensively for the Mets they pounded out 12 hits, Anthony Recker, who maybe starting his last game as a Met for a long time, took advantage of the opportunity and had his first 3 hit game. Going 3 for 3 with a double on the night. Byrd  is now one shy of his career high in homers in a season of 20. He did that in 2009 with the Rangers. With the Win, the Mets are now 56-64 and 31-32 on the road.   Saturday night is game 3 of the 4 game series. Jenrry Mejia (1-2  2.22) goes for the Mets, Edinson Volquez (8-10  5.80) goes for the Friars. https://www.facebook.com/MetsForum