August 9th 2015 -- Rays 4, Mets 3

Sunday in St. Petersburg Richie Shaffer went 3 for 3 including the deciding solo home run in the 7^th inning. The Rays take 2 of 3 from the Mets with a 4-3 win.  The Mets finish the road swing 4-2. Once again the Mets and Bartolo Colon were staked to an early lead scoring 3 times in the top of the 2^nd inning against wild righty flame thrower Chris Archer. Archer walked Juan Uribe, Wilmer Flores and Kevin Plawecki. With the bases loaded and 2 out, Curtis Granderson walked forcing home Uribe with a 1-0 lead.  Daniel Murphy followed with a 2 run single and the Mets had a 3-0 lead.  In the third John Jaso hit a sac-fly scoring Shaffer to make it 3-1.  In the 5^th Jaso doubled home Shaffer and Brandon Guyer to knot the game at 3.  In the 7^th Shaffer hit a solo homer to left, his 2^nd on the year to give the Rays the lead for good.  Archer was gone after 6. He allowed 4 hits the 3 runs walked 4 and struck 10.  The Rays bullpen got the job done after his departure. Xavier Cedeno, Steven Geltz and Jake McGee pitched a scoreless 7^th, 8^th and 9^th.  Cedeno gets the win improving to 2-1, McGee notches his 6^th save. Colon went 6 2/3 allowing 9 hits the 4 runs (all earned) walking and striking out none and takes the loss, falling to 10-11. Jaso went 2 for 3 with 3 RBI, Daniel Murphy and Yoenis Cespedes each had 2 hits for the Mets.  With the loss the Mets fall to 59-52 and are now 21-34 on the road.  The Nationals lost to the Rockies in D.C., the Mets have a 1 ½ game lead as they return home to face the Rockies for four games.  Monday night it’s game one against Colorado at Citi Field. Jonathon Niese (6-9 3.51) goes for the Mets, John Gray (0-0 4.50) goes for Colorado.