August 11th - Mets 9, Dbacks 5

Sunday afternoon, the Mets scored 4 times in the bottom of the first inning; as they go on to beat the Dbacks 9-5. Jon Niese made his first start since coming off the disabled list and wasn’t sharp but pitched well enough to get the win.  In that first inning Paul Goldschmidt made a 2 base error with the bases loaded allowing 3 unearned runs to score to make it 3-zip Mets. Anthony Recker then followed with and rbi double to make it 4-nothing.  An rbi double by Aaron Hill in the bottom of the first made it 4-1.  Omar Quintanilla connected with an rbi single in the top of the 3^rd increasing the Met lead to 5-1. In the bottom of the 4^th, Aaron Hill continued his one man assault on Jon Niese when he stroked his 7^th homer, a three run shot, to cut the Met lead to 5-4.  In the top of the 7^th, Pinch hitter Andrew Brown clubbed a 3 run homer, his 4th on the year and 2^nd pinch hit homer on the year…to give the Mets breathing room. The needed it because in the bottom of the 8^th, Cliff Pennington’s rbi single made it 8-5. In the top of the 9^th, Wilmer Flores put the cherry on top with an opposite field homer off Health Bell, his first major league homer to make it 9-5 Mets.  Niese went 6 innings, he allowed 7 hits 4 runs (all earned) he walked 1 and struck out 5….he improves to 4-6.  Offensively the Mets scattered 11 hits around the lineup. Juan Lagares and Flores each had 2 hits, Ike Davis stroked a single and walked 3 times to reach base 4 out of 5 while scoring 3 runs. Ike has now reached base 24 out of last 32 times up. That’s a OBP of .750!  The Mets take 2 out of 3 from Arizona and climb to 7 games away from .500 with a 54-61 record. They reach .500 on the road now standing at 29-29. Monday Night it’s off to Los Angeles to face the scorching hot Dodgers.  Jenrry Mejia (1-1  1.96) goes for the Mets. Ricky Nolasco (8-9  3.65) goes for LA. https://www.facebook.com/MetsForum