Schwei's Mets Notes: Colon Experiences Some Tough Luck, Pierzynski Owns Harvey And More
By John Schweibacher
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After winning both of their games against the defending World Series champion Kansas City Royals, the New York Mets could only get two wins in their four-game series against the last-place Atlanta Braves.
The Braves salvaged the split with a 5-2 victory over the Mets on Sunday afternoon at Turner Field. Bartolo Colon took the loss despite allowing just one run in seven innings, a solo homer to Freddie Freeman in the bottom of the first.
It was the second time this season Colon lost a game while allowing just one run on a home run. On April 9, Colon gave up a solo shot to Ryan Howard in the fifth inning of a 1-0 loss to the Phillies at Citi Field.
Tom Seaver had four such losses for the Mets, the most by a starting pitcher in club history:
• 9/16/71: Cubs 1 at Mets 0, Juan Pizarro HR in eighth
• 9/5/72: Cubs 3 at Mets 0, Rick Monday HR in fifth
• 4/17/73: Cubs 1 at Mets 0, Rick Monday HR in fourth
• 7/17/76: Astros 1 at Mets 0, Cesar Cedeno HR in first
Kelly Johnson's pinch-hit home run in the 11th inning broke a scoreless tie, and the Mets held on to win, 1-0, Saturday night in Atlanta. It was the sixth time in club history the Mets won a 1-0 game with an extra-inning home run:
• 6/26/16: Mets 1 at Braves 0 (11), Kelly Johnson (pinch-hit)
• 10/1/85: Mets 1 at Cardinals 0 (11), Darryl Strawberry (off the clock in Busch Stadium)
• 6/17/76: Dodgers 0 at Mets 1 (14), Dave Kingman
• 4/11/71: Reds 0 at Mets 1 (11), Jerry Grote
• 8/19/69: Giants 0 at Mets 1 (14), Tommie Agee (vs. Juan Marichal who shut out Mets until 14th)
• 6/14/65: Mets 1 at Reds 0 (11), Johnny Lewis (vs. Jim Maloney who no- hit Mets through 10 innings)
The Mets built an early 8-0 lead and survived a six-run, fifth inning rally by the Braves in an 8-6 win Friday night at Turner Field. Hansel Robles picked up his second win with 2 2/3 perfect innings to stop the Braves' comeback.
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Robles, who went 3 2/3 innings for the win in relief of Bartolo Colon on Tuesday night, became the first Mets reliever to record two victories in outings of at least 2 2/3 innings in the same season since Hisanori Takahashi, who did it twice on the same homestand in May of 2010. Tug McGraw had 22 such outings in his Mets' career, the most in club history.
Adonis Garcia's two-run home run off Addison Reed in the eighth inning Thursday night lifted the Braves to their fourth straight win over the Mets, 4-3.
Matt Harvey was in line for the win, having allowed two runs in six innings. Both of those runs were driven in by Atlanta catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who is now 8-for-12 (.667) in his career with four runs batted in against Harvey.
Here are the top career batting averages by active players who have had at least 10 career at bats against Harvey:
• A.J. Pierzynski .667 (8-for-12)
• Zack Cozart .545 (6-for-11)
• Joey Votto .417 (5-for-12)
• Cliff Robinson .364 (4-for-11)
• Anthony Rendon .353 (6-for-17)
The Mets completed the two-game sweep of the Royals, 4-3, Wednesday afternoon at Citi Field. Asdrubal Cabrera hit a two-run homer and Matt Reynolds hit his first major league home run in the win. The Mets hit at least two homers in 28 of its first 70 games this season. The Elias Sports Bureau notes that the Mets have had that many multi-homer games within their first 70 contests of a season only twice before: 1990 (29) and in 2006 (28).
The Mets beat the Royals, 2-1, on Tuesday night. New York's bullpen allowed just one run in 8 2/3 innings after Bartolo Colon had to leave the game with a thumb injury after retiring the first batter.
According to Baseball-Reference.com, the only other time in club history that the Mets won despite having their starting pitcher face just one batter was on May 20, 2010, when John Maine left the game against the Nationals in Washington after walking the leadoff hitter. Raul Valdes got the win with five innings of relief in the eventual 10-7 victory.
Happy Recap: Four Score. The Mets are 29-6 when they score four or more runs, but just 11-28 when they score three or less this season.
Nine Miles of Rough Road: Michael Conforto. The Mets left fielder was demoted to Triple-A Las Vegas on Saturday. After finishing April with four homers, 18 runs batted in and a .365 batting average, Conforto hit just .148 (21-for-142) with six home runs and 12 RBI's in May and June.
