The Mets defeated the Giants 4-2 on Saturday behind the stellar pitching of Jacob deGrom and a four-run seventh inning against Jake Peavy.

The Mets and Giants squared off in game two of their four game set at Citi Field and it was the team from New York that came out victorious with a 4-2 victory. The game featured two starting pitchers who share a first name, as Jacob deGrom and Jake Peavy traded zeroes and stymied the opposition for most of the evening. It was a fantastic pitcher's duel and the excellent pitching was only aided by some fantastic defense and a very energetic crowd at Citi Field.

On Saturday evening, the pair of Jacobs (or Jakes, if you wish) took the hill at Citi Field and twirled some outstanding ball. For the Mets, it was deGrom who shut out the Giants and kept them without a baserunner into the 5th inning. After walking Brandon Belt, deGrom ignored the momentary bump in the road and continued to stifle the Giants, not allowing a hit until Pablo Sandoval lined a double into the gap with two outs in the 7th inning. All of deGrom's pitches were working quite well on this evening, as his fastball easily navigated the corners of the plate with mid-90's velocity and his offspeed stuff induced a number of awkward swings and misses. For a while, it seemed like deGrom might actually have a shot at history. And yet, Peavy was somehow even better. The longtime vet, in his second start with the Giants, matched and even bested deGrom, taking a perfect game into the Mets half of the seventh inning. While only striking out 4 batters in total, Peavy was incredibly efficient with his pitches and got the Mets to get themselves out with weak contact.

Both sides also played crisp defense behind their pitchers, always important when trying for the elusive no-hitter. Juan Lagares made a sparkling leaping play in the second inning to rob Brandon Belt of extra bases deep in the left center field gap. Hunter Pence followed that with an outstanding sliding catch along the right field line to retire Wilmer Flores a few innings later. It was a pitching and defensive clinic between these two team for most of the evening. Then, with one foul ball, it was all over.

Fast forward to the bottom of the seventh inning with Curtis Granderson at the dish to lead it off. Granderson fouled a ball off onto the third base side and out of play. Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval went hard after the foul ball, colliding with the fence and a parabolic microphone set up in the opening of that fence. After the collision and unsuccessful catch, Sandoval realized he'd cut himself on the microphone and asked the trainer to come out to bandage him up. At this point in the Mets booth, Keith Hernandez spoke about how the wait for Sandoval to get bandaged could negatively affect Peavy on the mound and the Mets' broadcaster may have been right.

After play restarted, Granderson launched a ball to the deepest part of the ballpark in right center field where it was caught on the warning track. Not a hit but probably the hardest contact on the evening to the point. Up next followed Daniel Murphy, who lined a ball to left field. Giants left fielder Michael Morse, known for his bat and certainly not his defense, misjudged the fly ball and it went over his head for a double and the Mets' first baserunner of the game. Peavy looked visibly upset that Morse missed the ball and things began to unravel from there. David Wright followed with a bloop single in front of Morse to put runners at the corners with one out and Lucas Duda was then hit by a pitch to load the bases for Travis d'Arnaud.

With the bases juiced and one out, the only thing d'Arnaud couldn't do was hit the ball on the ground. Waiting for his pitch, d'Arnaud lined a ball to deep right field that Pence caught, allowing Murphy to score with the Mets first run of the night. Juan Lagares then followed that with a single to score the second run of the night. The Mets were not done, however, and Wilmer Flores came up to the plate and ripped a two-run double down the left field line. With a little help from the SNY microphones and some poor outfield defense, the Mets went from seventh inning perfect game to 4-0 lead just like that.

Leading for the first time, Jacob deGrom came out and gave up a pair of runs in the eighth on a Travis Ishikawa single before being lifted for Jeurys Familia. With a runner at first and the tying run at the plate, Familia managed to strike out Hunter Pence and induce a Brandon Crawford fly ball to center to end the Giants rally. In the ninth inning, Jenrry Mejia allowed a leadoff hit to Buster Posey before retiring the next two batters. With two outs, Brandon Belt singled to put the tying run on base but Mejia was able to get Joe Panik to weakly ground out to second base to end it. It was an exciting win for the Mets, one that featured stellar pitching all around and timely hitting. Let's do that again real soon!

SB Nation GameThreads

* Amazin' Avenue GameThread
* McCovey Chronicles GameThread

Win Probability Added

(What's this?)

Big winners: Jacob deGrom (30.8%), Jeurys Familia (7.1%)
Big losers:Curtis Granderson (-8.5%), Eric Young (-3.0%)
Teh aw3s0mest play: Juan Lagares' RBI single to make it 2-0 (9.2%)
Teh sux0rest play:Buster Posey's leadoff single in the 9th inning (-7.0%)
Total pitcher WPA: 43.7%
Total batter WPA: 6.3%
GWRBI!: Travis d'Arnaud

Catch up on all of yesterday's minor league action from around the Mets' farm system!

*All results from games played on Saturday, August 2, 2014

Triple-A - Las Vegas 51s (63–53)______________________________________

LAS VEGAS 5, SACRAMENTO 7 (Box)

• CF Matt den Dekker: 0–4, K
• SS Matt Reynolds: 1–3, RBI, R, 2 K
• 1B Andrew Brown: 1–3, BB, K
• 3B Josh Satin: 0–4
• C Taylor Teagarden: 3–4, HR (10), 2 RBI, R, K
• DH Kevin Plawecki: 1–3, R, BB, K
• LF Cory Vaughn: 1–4, 2B, R
• RF Cesar Puello: 2–4, 2 RBI, 2 K, 2 SB (13)
• 2B Daniel Muno: 1–3, R, K
• LHP John Lannan: 6.2 IP, 6 ER, 8 H, 3 BB, 3 K, WP (L, 1–1)
• RHP Miguel Socolovich: .1 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 1 K
• RHP Giancarlo Alvarado: 1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K

Double-A - Binghamton Mets (67–46)______________________________________

BOWIE 1, BINGHAMTON 2 (Box)

• CF Brandon Nimmo: 0–3, BB, K, SB (4)
• 2B Dilson Herrera: 0–2, R, 2 BB
• 1B Brian Burgamy: 1–4, R, K
• DH Jayce Boyd: 1–3, BB
• 3B T.J. Rivera: 4–4, RBI
• RF Darrell Ceciliani: 2–4, RBI, CS (6)
• C Juan Centeno: 0–4
• SS Wilfredo Tovar: 0–3, K
• LF Kyle Johnson: 1–3, 2B, 2 K
• RHP Rainy Lara: 7 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 7 K
• LHP Jack Leathersich: 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 2 BB, 1 K, WP (W, 3–3)
• RHP Cody Satterwhite: 1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 1 K (S, 11)

Advanced-A - St. Lucie Mets (21–18 / 61–47)______________________________________

ST. LUCIE 6, CLEARWATER 3 (Box)

• 3B Jeff McNeil: 1–4, E (4)
• LF Maikis De La Cruz: 1–5, 2B, RBI
• 2B Phillip Evans: 0–5
• RF Jared King: 2–5, 2B, RBI, R
• CF Gilbert Gomez: 0–2, R, CS (5)
• 1B Cole Frenzel: 0–4
• SS Gavin Cecchini: 2–3, 2 2B, 2 RBI, R, E (9)
• C Albert Cordero: 2–4, HR (2), 2 RBI, 2 R
• DH Eudy Pina: 1–2, R
• RHP Matthew Koch: 5.1 IP, 3 R (2 ER), 6 H, 4 BB, 2 K, WP
• LHP Dario Alvarez: 1.2 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 3 K (W, 1–0)
• RHP Beck Wheeler: 2 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 1 BB, 1 K (S, 8)

Low-A - Savannah Sand Gnats (25–16 / 68–38)______________________________________

Game 1

HICKORY 2, SAVANNAH 5 (Box)

• SS Yeixon Ruiz: 1–3, RBI, R, SB (10)
• CF Champ Stuart: 1–3, R, BB, K, SB (20)
• 1B Dominic Smith: 1–4, 2B, RBI, 2 K, E (7)
• DH Matt Oberste: 1–2, 2 RBI, K, HBP
• 3B Neifi Zapata: 1–3, 2 K
• RF Victor Cruzado: 1–2, R, BB
• LF Patrick Biondi: 1–2, R, K, SB (23)
• C Jeff Glenn: 0–3, K, PB (9)
• 2B Jonathan Johnson: 0–2, R, BB
• RHP Ricky Knapp: 5.1 IP, 2 R (1 ER), 6 H, 3 BB, 6 K (W, 5–6)
• RHP Akeel Morris: 1.2 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 BB, 1 K, WP (S, 11)

Game 2

HICKORY 0, SAVANNAH 8 (Box)

• SS Yeixon Ruiz: 2–4, 2 RBI, R
• CF Champ Stuart: 1–4, RBI, R, 3 K, SB (21)
• 1B Dominic Smith: 1–4, RBI, K
• 3B Nelfi Zapata: 0–3, BB
• RF Victor Cruzado: 0–2, R, 2 BB, K, SB (8)
• DH Jonathan Leroux: 0–4, R
• 2B Jorge Rivero: 0–1, 2 R, 2 BB, K
• C Colton Plaia: 1–2, 2B, 3 RBI, R, BB, K
• LF Stefan Sabol: 2–2, R, BB, SB (14)
• RHP Robert Gsellman: 7 IP, 0 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 5 K (W, 9–5)

Short-A - Brooklyn Cyclones (26–23)______________________________________

CONNECTICUT 1, BROOKLYN 8 (Box)

• CF John Mora: 1–4, RBI, R
• SS Amed Rosario: 3–4, 3B, RBI, 2 R
• LF Michael Conforto: 1–2, HR (1), 2 RBI, 2 R, 2 BB, Assist (Pankake at home)
• 3B Jhoan Urena: 0–2, RBI, 2 BB, K
• 1B Tyler Moore: 0–2, RBI, BB, K
• DH Tomas Nido: 0–3, RBI, K
• C Adrian Abreu: 3–4, 2 R
• RF Tucker Tharp: 0–3, K
• 2B Dimas Ponce: 2–4, 3B, RBI, R, K
• RHP Marcos Molina: 8 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 9 K, WP (W, 5–1)
• RHP Cameron Griffin: 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K

Rookie Appalachian League - Kingsport Mets (20–22)______________________________________

ELIZABETHTON 4, KINGSPORT 0 (Box)

• SS Luis Guillorme: 1–4
• 2B Jean Rodriguez: 0–4
• RF Wuilmer Becerra: 0–3, BB
• LF Oswald Caraballo: 1–4
• 3B Pedro Perez: 1–4, 2 K
• DH Eudor Garcia: 0–3, BB
• 1B Zach Mathieu: 1–3, K
• C Jose Garcia: 1–3, 2B, 2 K
• CF Ivan Wilson: 0–3, 3 K
• LHP Blake Taylor: 4 IP, 4 R (3 ER), 5 H, 4 BB, 2 K (L, 2–1)
• RHP Ruben Reyes: 3 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 3 K
• RHP Christian Montgomery: 2 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 K

Rookie - Gulf Coast League Mets (20–18)______________________________________

GCL NATIONALS 4, GCL METS 6 (Box)

• LF Enmanuel Zabala: 1–4, 3B, R, 2 SB (9), CS (9)
• SS Milton Ramos: 1–4, RBI, SB (5)
• CF Arnaldo Berrios: 1–5
• DH Dash Winningham: 2–3, HR (4), RBI, 3 R, SB (1)
• RF Hengelbert Rojas: 0–2, HBP
• C Natanael Ramos: 0–3, HBP
• 2B Alfredo Reyes: 2–4, RBI, R
• 1B Manuel Hilario: 1–4, 2B, R
• 3B Alvin Maracaro: 0–2, SB (4), E (5)
• RHP Darwin Ramos: 5 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 K (W, 2–2)
• LHP Joel Huertas: 3 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 1 BB, 3 K (H, 1)
• LHP Gabriel Feliz: .2 IP, 4 R (3 ER), 2 H, 2 BB, 0 K, 1 HR
• RHP Alex Palsha: .1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 1 K (S, 6)

Your Sunday morning dose of Mets and Major League Baseball news, notes, and links.

The Mets beat the Giants in a thriller last night, as Jacob deGrom took a no-hitter into the seventh inning. Jake Peavy was working on a perfect game for San Francisco, too, before the Mets broke through for four runs in the bottom of the seventh. With that, the Mets are 53-57 on the season but just six games behind the Giants and Brewers in the Wild Card race.

Choose your recap: Amazin' Avenue short, long, New York Times, ESPN New York, New York Post, New York Daily News, The Record

Is David Wright still hurt? Given his production lately, that doesn't sound unreasonable.

The Star-Ledger takes a look at Juan Lagares's increased selectivity at the plate.

Will we soon be calling the days on which deGrom pitches deGrom Day?

The Mets are considering calling up Matt den Dekker, who has been hitting very well in Vegas lately, this month. Outfielders Bobby Abreu and Chris Young seem the most likely to be replaced if they do.

Steven Matz is having quite a year in the Mets' minor league system, and he credits his success this year to his curveball. And speaking of crediting minor league success to something, Las Vegas middle infielder Matt Reynoldshas worked hard to get as far as he has this year.

Noah Syndergaard might not get a major league call-up this year, says Terry Collins, who cites advice he's gotten from other managers about not trusting young players in important ballgames.

A Mets fan fell over left field fence at the Party City Deck before last night's game.

Jay Jaffe took a look at some players who could still be traded before the waiver trade deadline, and Bartolo Colon is appropriately on the list.

Around the National League East

The Phillies were beaten pretty handily by the Nationals. The Marlins won in extra innings against the Reds, but that's not a terrible thing for the Mets, as they're on the heels of both of those teams in the Wild Card race. And speaking of extra-inning games, the Braves lost one last night.

Around Major League Baseball

A very bad season just got worse for Arizona. The Diamondbacks put Paul Goldschmidt on the disabled list after he broke his hand.

CJ Nitkowski proposes a solution to baseball's awkward home plate collision rule.

Jim Thome, who had a great career, has officially retired.

Beyond the Box Score looks at Red Sox youngster Mookie Betts.

Yesterday at Amazin' Avenue

Let the good times roll.

What's wrong with David Wright?

This Date in Mets History: August 3 has been a day of big home runs for the Mets over the years.

Ranking and tiering the two-start pitchers for Week 19, including Wade Miley, Charlie Morton and Dillon Gee.

Last week was my first five-win week of the season, with Jake Odorizzi, Jacob deGrom and Danny Salazar all earning victories in five starts combined. Week 18 has been nearly as productive, with three wins already out of Odorizzi, Marcus Stroman and Mike Leake through one turn. Trevor Bauer produced the only clunker so far, and all four starters are scheduled to pitch on Sunday.

Results (Through 1/2 of Week 18)

42-27
7.33 K/9
2.40 BB/9
3.39 ERA
1.15 WHIP

Start!

Clayton Kershaw: Tue-LAA (Skaggs), Sun-@MIL (Garza)
Felix Hernandez: Tue-ATL (Wood), Sun-CWS (Danks)
Max Scherzer: Mon-@NYY (McCarthy), Sat-@TOR (Stroman)
David Price: Tue-@NYY (Kuroda), Sun-@TOR (Buehrle)
Johnny Cueto: Tue-@CLE (McAllister), Sun-MIA (Hand)
Corey Kluber: Mon-CIN (Simon), Sat-@NYY (McCarthy)
Zack Greinke: Mon-LAA (Richards), Sat-@MIL (Lohse)

Tier 1

Garrett Richards: Mon-@LAD (Greinke), Sat-BOS (Buchholz)
Alex Cobb: Mon-@OAK (Samardzija), Sun-@CHC (Wood)
Jeff Samardzija: Mon-TB (Cobb), Sat-MIN (Gibson)
Gio Gonzalez: Tue-NYM (Wheeler), Sun-@ATL (Harang)
Tanner Roark: Mon-BAL (Gausman), Sat-@ATL (Santana)
Zack Wheeler: Tue-@WSH (Gonzalez), Sun-@PHI (Kendrick)
Matt Garza: Tue-SF (Lincecum), Sun-LAD (Kershaw)

Tier 2

Dallas Keuchel: Tue-@PHI (Kendrick), Sun-TEX (Martinez)
Danny Duffy: Tue-@ARI (Miley), Sun-SF (Lincecum)
Wade Miley: Tue-KC (Duffy), Sun-COL (Lyles)
Tim Lincecum: Tue-@MIL (Garza), Sun-@KC (Duffy)
Tim Hudson: Mon-@NYM (Gee), Sat-@KC (Shields)
Alfredo Simon: Mon-@CLE (Kluber), Sat-MIA (Alvarez)
Charlie Morton: Tue-MIA (Hand), Sun-SD (Ross)
Dillon Gee: Mon-SF (Hudson), Sat-@PHI (Hamels)
Brandon McCarthy: Mon-DET (Scherzer), Sat-CLE (Kluber)

Tier 3

Kevin Gausman: Mon-@WSH (Roark), Sat-STL (Lynn)
Phil Hughes: Tue-SD (Hahn), Sun-@OAK (Hammel)
Kyle Kendrick: Tue-HOU (Keuchel), Sun-NYM (Wheeler)
John Danks: Tue-TEX (Lewis), Sun-@SEA (Hernandez)
Bud Norris: Tue-@TOR (Buehrle), Sun-STL (Lackey)
Jason Hammel: Tue-TB (Smyly), Sun-MIN (Hughes)
Hiroki Kuroda: Tue-DET (Price), Sun-CLE (McAllister)
Brad Hand: Tue-@PIT (Morton), Sun-@CIN (Cueto)

Not this week

Mark Buehrle: Tue-BAL (Norris), Sun-DET (Price)
Joe Kelly: Tue-@STL (Lackey), Sun-@LAA (Skaggs)
Jordan Lyles: Tue-CHC (Wood), Sun-@ARI (Miley)
Nick Martinez: Mon-@CWS (Noesi), Sun-@HOU (Keuchel)
Zach McAllister: Tue-CIN (Cueto), Sun-@NYY (Kuroda)
Hector Noesi: Mon-TEX (Martinez), Sat-@SEA (Iwakuma)
Tyler Skaggs: Tue-@LAD (Kershaw), Sun-BOS (Kelly)
Travis Wood: Tue-@COL (Lyles), Sun-TB (Cobb)

My Week 19 Picks

Wade Miley, Diamondbacks
2014: 7-7, 145.2 IP, 8.16 K/9, 2.84 BB/9, 49.99 GB%, 4.14 ERA, 1.28 WHIP

Miley is a bit of a wildcard in the desert. His 4.14 ERA has undoubtedly led to his low ownership (16.8 percent in ESPN, 26 percent in Yahoo), but he's been closer to that of a 3.50 ERA pitcher, at least according to his 3.40 xFIP and 3.53 SIERA. Miley is striking out a career-best 8.16 batters per nine, including strikeout games of 10, 8 and 7 in the past month. Miley won't give you a tidy WHIP, but the strikeout upside alone should be worth the cheap price of a simple waiver addition. In Week 19, Miley gets the Royals and Rockies at Chase Field, where he has struggled overall (5.45 ERA in 67 2/3 innings), but Kansas City and Colorado are coming off terrible July's. Neither team is particularly patient (the Royals are dead last in walk rate, in fact), so Miley's recent bout of wildness isn't as great of a concern.

Charlie Morton, Pirates
2014: 5-10, 137.1 IP, 7.08 K/9, 3.08 BB/9, 54.0 GB%, 3.54 ERA, 1.22 WHIP

Chuck has put together his best season to date, despite logging a 5-10 record. He's recorded a quality start in half of his 22 games started, and his 1.0 WAR, according to FanGraphs, is currently the best mark on the Pirates. (Brandon Cumpton and Vance Worley are tied for second on that list, at 0.8 fWAR. Maybe the Buccos should have traded for a starter...) Really, though, you'll want to use Morton for his extremely advantageous pair of starts in Week 19, when he faces the struggling Reds and the season-long offensive black hole that is the Padres. Cincinnati scored the 29th fewest runs in July, and San Diego -- while playing much better on offense as of late -- weren't far behind at 22nd. We've seen an uptick in Morton's strikeouts to over seven strikeouts per nine innings (first time in career), and he's still producing a solid 54 percent groundball rate. Morton has never tossed this many innings before, but we shouldn't be worried about a possible innings limit/fatigue situation just yet.

Dillon Gee, Mets
2014: 4-4, 76.1 IP, 6.25 K/9, 2.48 BB/9, 45.1 GB%, 3.77 ERA, 1.10 WHIP

This week's available two-start pool isn't great, to be honest, so I was happy see the steady Gee available at my disposal. Injuries have slowed down Gee's 2014, but I expect him to finish strong. His velocity hasn't been affected much, and helping matters in Week 19 are a pair of bottom-five offenses (in terms of wOBA) on deck in the Giants and Phillies. I expect nothing short of two quality starts from the dependable Gee in Week 18.

Stats from FanGraphs.com

Madison Bumgarner threw a complete-game shutout and the Giants homered four times to take a 2-1 series lead.

The Mets could have stayed home today and saved us the pain of having to watch this bloodbath.

Madison Bumgarner was simply brilliant, allowing only two hits and three baserunners the whole game. Before David Wright's broken-bat single in the seventh, the Giants' starter had retired twelve Mets in a row. Bumgarner threw only 94 pitches the whole game. It was not pretty to watch.

Bartolo Colon's performance was not nearly as dominant. The Mets' starter gave up six earned runs on eight hits, with three of them coming on a two-run homer from Hunter Pence and a solo shot off the bat of Brandon Belt. Colon made it into the fifth, but Pence, Buster Posey, and Pablo Sandoval drove in three more runs in that inning to end his day. Carlos Torres and Dana Eveland came in and gave up two more homers to Buster Posey and Pence (again) to make the game a true laugher.

GameThread Roll Call

Nice job by MookieTheCat; his effort in the GameThread embiggens us all.

Let's just forget this one ever happened.

Remember last night's game? Remember how great that was? Man, Jacob deGrom pitched fantastically last night. It was really, really awesome to get to see the Mets emerge from an entertaining pitchers duel with a victory.

Today's game was not like that. At all.

After pitching splendidly in his past two starts versus the Mariners and the Phillies, Bartolo Colon was not firing on all cylinders and the Giants jumped all over him. When Colon is at his best, he is a simple, brilliant innings eater, mystifyingly straight forward and laid back in the way he achieves outs. At his worst, he essentially throws glorified batting practice. Sadly for Mets fans, the latter Bartolo showed up today at Citi Field.

It didn't help that the Mets lineup was laughable against Madison Bumgarner. Bumgarner was coming off a rough start against the Pirates, and he pitched like a man with something to prove. He threw only 94 pitches the whole game, with 75 of them being strikes. After allowing a leadoff walk to Curtis Granderson; he didn't give up another free pass the rest of the contest, and struck out ten. The only two Mets hits were a Wilmer Flores double in the third that Michael Morse misplayed (it's time to get this guy on the payroll!)  and a broken bat single to David Wright in the seventh. To say it simply: he put on a clinic.

The Giants, on the other hand, had no problem with Mets pitching. After getting through the first and the second inning without any major issues, Colon ran into trouble in the third when Brandon Crawford led off the inning with a single to right. Bumgarner sacrificed him over to second, needlessly as it turned out, because alien life-form Hunter Pence came up next and muscled a homer into left field to put the Giants up 2-0. Colon got the next two batters without an issue, but in the fourth, Brandon Belt hit a fly ball that kept on carrying over the right field fence to add a run to the Giants tally.

At this point, the game was 3-0, and while Colon was clearly not at his best, he certainly had kept the Mets within striking distance. He remedied that with his performance in the fifth when, after striking out Crawford, he allowed a single to Bumgarner on a fastball right over the plate. (Sidebar: Why are people still throwing fastballs right over the plate to Madison Bumgarner? Have we not learned?) Bumgarner then advanced to second on Anthony Recker's pass ball. This proved costly, as Pence came up and did whatever Hunter Pence does and smacked a ball to left to drive in Bumgarner. He also hustled around first to turn it into a double, which was just really, really irritating. After that, Colon got recent call-up Matt Duffy, who looks like he just got his learners permit, to ground out to second, but Pence advanced to third on the play. He didn't stay there long, as Buster Posey doubled to drive him in to put the Giants up 5-0. But the merry-go-round wasn't going to stop there, because Pablo Sandoval came on and singled in Posey to put the Mets in a 6-0 hole and knock Bartolo out of the game. Buddy Carlyle came in and got Brandon Belt to fly out to Granderson to stop the bleeding.

The Giants scored three more runs, all of them coming off of two homers. The first was a Buster Posey two-run shot off of Carlos Torres in the seventh, and the second came off the bat of that meddling Hunter Pence against Dana Eveland in the ninth to put the final score at 9-0.

The Giants came into today having hit only two homers in their last nine games. To our colleagues at McCovey Chronicles: you're welcome.

Dillon Gee will try and even the series tomorrow at high noon against Tim Hudson. Above all, I hope Michael Morse starts, as his positively Duda-esque play in left field gives me hope for a Mets victory.

SB Nation GameThreads

* Amazin' Avenue GameThread
* McCovey Chronicles GameThread

Win Probability Added

(What's this?)

Big winners: Wilmer Flores, 7.4
Big losers: Bartolo Colon, -29.1; David Wright, -6.0
Teh aw3s0mest play: Wilmer Flores double, bottom of the third
Teh sux0rest play: Hunter Pence homer, top of the third
Total pitcher WPA: -29.3
Total batter WPA: -20.7
GWRBI!: Hunter Pence homer, top of the third

Your Monday morning dose of New York Mets and Major League Baseball news, notes, and links.

Meet the Mets

The Mets were trounced by the Giants 9-0 on Sunday. Madison Bumgarner limited the Mets to a pair of hits and a walk while pitching a complete game, and Hunter Pence paced the San Francisco offense with a pair of home runs.

Recap Parade: Amazin' Avenue short, long, MLB.com, ESPN NY, Post, Daily News, Newsday, Star-Ledger

Pence's three-hit, four-RBI game had to feel especially good for the outfielder after Mets fans had teased him all weekend.

After the game, David Wright told reporters that his recent slump doesn't have anything to do with the shoulder injury that he suffered back in June.

Matt Harvey will throw some more pitches off of a mound on Tuesday.

Jack Moore writes at Sports on Earth that the development of Jacob deGrom's changeup has been key to his surprisingly awesome 2014 season.

Around the NL East

The Braves' losing streak continued with a sixth straight defeat. This time, Atlanta fell 4-3 to the Padres, and there are still tow games remaining on the disastrous west coast trip.

Miami lost to the Reds 7-3, but at least Giancarlo Stanton made this amazing play.

Stephen Strasburg dominated the Phillies and Washington posted a second straight shutout over its rivals.

Around the Majors

Diamondbacks slugger Paul Goldschmidt is likely done for the season after an Ernesto Frieri pitch broke his hand on Friday night.

Nolan Arenado made a bonkers play to take a hit away from Detroit's Eugenio Suarez.

Fans at Tropicana Field were treated to Looney Tunes when the power went out temporarily during the Angels vs. Rays game.

Although he's struggled to hit the ball out of Safeco Field so far, Robinson Cano has succeeded in bringing hope to the Mariners.

Yesterday at AA

Lukas Vlahos used a stat called RE24 to determine which Mets are most effective in clutch situations.

On this date in 1982, the immortal Joel Youngblood became the first player in major league history to record a hit for two different teams in the same day.

A few Mets hitters were very good this week. A few were very bad.

As has often been the case with the hitter meters this year, there are plenty of red arrows below. On the upside, there aren't quite as many as there were last week. Over the last week, the team went 3-3, and its lineup was in all-or-nothing mode, scoring seven, zero, eleven, one, four, and zero runs in those games, respectively.

Player	Last Week	This Week	Comment
Bobby Abreu, OF			In extremely limited playing time—three plate appearances, to be precise—Abreu didn’t reach base and grounded into a double play.
Eric Campbell, 1B			While he hit .286 on the week, Campbell didn’t draw any walks or have an extra-base hits.
Travis d’Arnaud, C			Despite a paltry .250 on-base percentage, d’Arnaud managed an .806 OPS for the week thanks to a home run and three doubles.
Lucas Duda, 1B			With two more home runs, Duda stayed hot, as he hit an impressive .286/.375/.714. He now has a 145 wRC+ for the season, the fifteenth-best mark in baseball among qualified hitters.
Wilmer Flores, SS/2B			In nine trips to the plate, Flores hit .333 and slugged .556. Perhaps this little run of success will earn him regular playing time.
Curtis Granderson, OF			Granderson stayed ice cold this week, with one double and four walks the highlights of his performance at the plate.
Juan Lagares, CF			Well, hello, Juan hittin’ Lagares. The center fielder, who made several outstanding plays in the field, hit .381/.381/.429. That’s more than sufficient for him.
Daniel Murphy, 2B			Murphy returned to form with a .900 OPS. That’s his best week in a while and a welcome sight.
Anthony Recker, C			He only played in one game, but he put up an 0-for-3 in it.
Ruben Tejada, SS			With a .526 OPS on the week, Tejada still managed to bat in the two hole yesterday against Madison Bumgarner. That probably didn’t make much of a difference in the game, but it was a head scratcher.
David Wright, 3B			Move along, nothing to see here.
Chris Young, OF			After a couple of good weeks in a row, Young hit just .111/.111/.111. Yikes.
Eric Young Jr., OF			Like Abreu and Recker, Young failed to reach base in very limited playing time.

The Mets’ usage of Wilmer Flores has left something to be desired.

It only seems as if the Mets’ Wilmer Flores has been around forever. Signed as an international free agent out of Venezuela in 2007, Flores was routinely mentioned as one of the club’s top prospects ever since his professional debut as a 16-year-old shortstop in 2008. Baseball America ranked him among their Top–100 prospects from 2009–2011, rating him as high as #47 in 2009. In that respect, Flores has not disappointed, producing a .292 career batting average plus solid power and run production numbers despite being among the youngest players at each of his minor league stops.

Now, on the cusp of his 23rd birthday, Flores finds himself at the center of a brewing maelstrom among the Mets’ fan base. They wonder why this player, who they have heard so much about for the last seven seasons, cannot get regular playing time for a team that is trying to find the right components for its next winner.

To be fair, many scouts and baseball observers are adamant that Flores does not have the skills to be an everyday shortstop at the major league level. The Mets largely agreed, moving him to third base after his 2011 campaign at High-A St. Lucie before shifting him to second base and first base. However, Ruben Tejada’s continuing struggles with the Mets have led Flores back to his original position, and many fans are clamoring for his name in the lineup every day.

There is virtually nothing Flores has left to prove in the minor leagues. In exactly 162 games played at the Triple-A level—albeit in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League with Las Vegas—Flores has hit .321/.360/.543 with 47 doubles, 28 home runs, and 143 RBI to go along with a .903 OPS. While no one expects anything close to that in the major leagues, many do wonder why Tejada continues to man the shortstop position just about every day despite hitting .219/.316/.274 with a .590 OPS and playing only marginal defense the last two seasons, compiling UZRs of just 0.2 in 2013 and 2014. Tejada has also drawn the wrath of both manager Terry Collins and GM Sandy Alderson for his conditioning and approach.

So why not start Flores at least five times per week? It’s hardly fair to judge his pedestrian major league numbers of .218/.249/.298 over all of 57 games spread over two seasons. As for his defense, in an admittedly small sample size of 20 starts at shortstop this year, Flores has compiled a strong UZR of 3.2. Is that type of defense sustainable? More than likely not, but for a club that seems ready to take the next step toward contention, don’t they owe it to themselves to at least see what Flores can do with consistent playing time?

The Mets know what they have in Tejada: A singles hitter with little else to offer on offense who won’t embarrass himself in the field. What they don’t know and seem unwilling to find out is what they have in Flores. Maybe he commits errors at a prolific rate, stumbles over his own feet, and embarrasses himself and the team. Or maybe the Mets actually have a player in the mold of a Jhonny Peralta: Someone who can swat 10–15 home runs, amass 60–70 RBI, and defy the experts by playing acceptable defense at shortstop over a full season.

Either way, Flores deserves the opportunity to sink or swim as a regular player. That he hasn’t yet reflects poorly on the Mets, who certainly have much more to gain by seeing what they have in Flores than what they already know they have in Tejada.

The Mets' pitching staff was once again led by Jacob deGrom, Zack Wheeler, Jenrry Mejia, and Jeurys Familia.

The Mets' pitching staff had an up-and-down week. When things went well, they went very well, as the team allowed just five runs in total in the three games it won. Unfortunately, it gave up twenty-one runs in the three games it lost.

Player	Last Week	This Week	Comment
Vic Black, RHP			Black threw 1.2 scoreless with a strikeout and a walk. He’s been effective despite generally high walk rates this year.
Buddy Carlyle, RHP			With 3.1 scoreless innings, 4 strikeouts, and no walks this week, Carlyle was again impressive. The guy has a 0.87 ERA and 1.88 FIP in 10.1 major league innings this year.
Bartolo Colon, P			Colon was very good against the Phillies and very bad against the Giants this week.
Jacob deGrom, RHP			deGrom carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning and wound up allowing just two runs in 7.1 innings with 7 strikeouts and one walk. He’s been fantastic.
Josh Edgin, LHP			Edgin only threw an inning in total over three appearances, but he served up the Chase Utley grand slam on Tuesday night.
Dana Eveland, LHP			Eveland made three appearances totaling two innings but gave up one run in that time.
Jeurys Familia, RHP			WIth another couple of scoreless frames, Familia continued his very good year out of the Mets’ bullpen.
Dillon Gee, RHP			Gee allowed five runs on five hits and walked more than he struck out in his start this week.
Daisuke Matsuzaka, RHP			On the shelf with an elbow injury, Matsuzaka might not be back in the near future.
Jenrry Mejia, RHP			Mejia threw only one inning this week, but it was a scoreless one. As a relief pitcher, he has a 1.91 ERA and 2.69 FIP this year with 9.55 strikeouts and 3.55 walks per nine innings.
Jon Niese, LHP			Niese managed to throw eight-plus innings in his start, but he gave up five runs in the process.
Carlos Torres, RHP			Torres had a rough go of it again, but he only pitched two innings over the course of the week.
Zack Wheeler, RHP			In his one start this week, Wheeler gave up two runs in 6.2 innings with 4 strikeouts and 2 walks.

The Internet makes following the Mets from across the country or around the world an essentially trivial task, but it hasn't always been so easy.

Joe Benigno was ticking me off.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I love Joe & Evan and listen to their midday show on WFAN to get my Mets news almost every day. But when he reads that Anthony’s coal-fired pizza commercial and I’m thirteen hundred miles from New York, I get frustrated. Especially when I’m one of the few Italians living in the Deep South and the only option is Pizza Hut.

Welcome to the world of a telecommuting Mets fan. Live by digital technology; die of chain restaurants.

Alas, it’s better than the old days. Back in 1984 I was a rookie TV reporter in Virginia surviving on phone call updates from Dad, a regular supply of week-old New York Posts via snail mail, and conversations with my boss who was also a die-hard. You think giving up chocolate for Lent is tough? Try moving away and going cold turkey on baseball before technology became the street pusher for my Mets addiction. At one point the withdrawal was so bad my boss and I took a news car up to the top of a mountain one night in an effort to pick up a radio broadcast. Bob Murphy’s voice intermittently segued in and out of a country music station, but Murph accompanied by Patsy Cline was better than nothing. Talk about crazy.

Then, the satellite and digital gods smiled on us. The neighbors hated the ten-foot satellite dish on my roof. Hey, buddy, I got your subdivision covenants right here.

Now, despite the lack of a mom-and-pop pizza joint within 500 miles of me, displaced Mets fans can at least get by. I read the New York papers on my laptop, listen to Big Apple radio on the ‘net, watch the games via the dish. Can’t get my best friend on the phone during a game? No problem. I can add my sarcasm to Evan Roberts’s Twitter feed and vent about the Wilpons with other fans. It’s a seat in the digital upper deck, surrounded by those real die-hards who will talk about the Mets with anyone.

Of course, as is always the case with technology, it’s not a perfect world. There’s the dreaded “rain fade” on the satellite (something that never happened back in the days of the rooftop antenna) that seems to pop up at the most inopportune times. The Internet can be really unreliable and for some reason will switch to a Nashville sports station without warning, leaving me with a twangy discussion about the Tennessee Titans. And then there’s the blackout problem.

Oh, you think because I live so far away I don’t have to worry about that? Most times I don’t. But when the Mets play the Braves, who have jurisdiction in this area, I’m stuck with the cornpone Atlanta announcers. David Wright might hit one 450 feet but you’ll hear, “the wind is really blowing out tonight.” Climate change obviously caused the Mets to win. Who knew? You can always call up a buddy back home, have him place his phone by the TV to get the Mets broadcast, and mute the sound on your flat screen.

Still, it’s never quite the same as being in the old neighborhood. I can’t get in the car on a whim and go to tonight’s game. But until some geek comes up with a real-life Star Trek transporter to get me to Citi Field, I can survive.

I’d even settle for someone beaming me one of those pizzas.

The Mets’ skipper and his daily managerial maneuvers are starting to raise eyebrows.

Mets’ manager Terry Collins didn’t strike out 10 times on Sunday. Nor did he manage just two hits or get clobbered for six runs in just 4⅔ innings. However, it’s becoming more and more common to read about Collins’s in-game managerial strategy and less about the players on the field after the Mets’ skipper decided to sit three regulars in Sunday’s 9–0 blanking to the Giants.

Since taking over as manager after the 2010 season, Collins hasn’t exactly enjoyed the benefit of filling out a lineup capable of producing consistent runs. Maybe that’s why the mainstream media has largely gone easy on him during his first three years in Queens, refraining from questioning his sometimes odd decisions during games. GM Sandy Alderson did his manager no favors by saying he expected the Mets to win 90 games in 2014, but fair or not, the spotlight has grown infinitely brighter on Collins and his club.

As the Mets’ talented youngsters begin to filter into Citi Field and inspire hope and excitement, the pressure continues to mount. The media, once content to simply give Collins the benefit of the doubt, are slowly but surely sharpening their questions. Anthony McCarron of the Daily News was the latest to join the party, wondering why the Mets’ manager decided to sit three regulars yesterday, including his two best hitters in 2014.

They were two-hit—yes, again—by the Giants, this time by lefty Madison Bumgarner, who struck out 10 and was never in real trouble. Searching for answers on such a flat afternoon, it’s easy to focus on the Mets’ lineup—neither Daniel Murphy nor Lucas Duda, the club’s two best offensive players this year, was in it. Should they have been, especially with the Mets’ offense fizzling so badly?

The third regular who sat was Travis d’Arnaud, and as a catcher who caught the night before, his absence is understandable. However, for a team that left Citi Field Sunday afternoon having been shut out for the second time on the homestand and the tenth time in 2014, sitting two of your hottest hitters in a lineup averaging 2.8 runs per game since the All-Star break is a questionable decision, at best.

You can point to Giants’ left-hander Madison Bumgarner and his history of dominance against left-handed batters (.217 batting average against). You can even cite Duda’s .167 batting average against left-handed pitchers in 2014 (never mind the fact that Murphy is smacking lefties around to a .308 batting average this season), but the simple fact is this: Collins continues to insist his club is in contention, so why would he choose to sit three regulars during a matchup against an opponent the Mets are chasing?

Collins, of course, had a ready-made excuse, telling Adam Rubin of ESPN New York:

"Some of these guys are just different. This guy [Bumgarner] throws across his body, and he's hard to pick up. If you're going to give a left-hander a day off, this is going to be the guy."

Yesterday’s puzzling lineup is just the latest in a growing number of questionable decisions Collins has made in 2014. Over the last few months, he has endured scrutiny for his use of Juan Lagares, Jeurys Familia, Ruben Tejada, and Wilmer Flores. Compounding his choices are his odd comments to the press. For example, after saying in early July that he needed to be careful with Familia’s usage following a 45-pitch effort on July 4, he used the right-hander three times in six games to close out the first half—games the Mets won, 8–3, 7–1, and 9–1.

Collins is becoming increasingly short and thin-skinned when pressed on decisions like these. After being clearly agitated last week when asked about his usage of Flores, he was at it again on Sunday morning during his pregame press conference, saying:

"I wanted to give Wilmer some playing time so you guys [the media] would stay calm."

That retort echoes a similar comment he made to the media after Familia was used in the aforementioned blowouts. The pressure on the Mets to win will only get hotter as the club moves forward in their rebuilding stage. Questionable maneuvers and sarcastic comments to the media from the manager won’t do him or the club any favors.

Collins should know this. He should also know that the time for noticeable improvement is at hand and his honeymoon as Mets’ manager can come to a very quick end.

The Mets could not manage to split the home series against the Giants.

The Mets lost today's matinee in a crushing manner by a score of 4-3 to the San Francisco Giants. The Mets gave up two leads today and could not manage to eek out the final game of this series. They will be happy to not see the Giants again until next year, as they finish their season series with them, winning just one of seven games.

Daniel Murphy put the Mets out in front early with a two-run home run in the first inning, but Pablo Sandoval hit a two-run double off of Dillon Gee in the third to even the game up at two. The Mets took the lead back in the fifth off of a David Wright RBI single but that's where the scoring for the home team stopped.

Jeurys Familia was wild out of the bullpen and saw a run cross the plate on his watch via a wild pitch and the Giants were able to score their fourth and winning run off of Jenrry Mejia in the form of another Sandoval RBI double.

Today's game had a little bit of everything, including a Terry Collins ejection for arguing balls and strikes, and the Mets will try to put this one behind them quickly as they head to Washington tomorrow hoping to get back on track.

GameThread Roll Call

Nice job by MetsFan4Decades; her effort in the GameThread embiggens us all.

The seemingly inevitable demotion of Bobby Abreu has finally occurred.

For the first couple months of the season, Bobby Abreu looked like a key piece of the Mets' roster. The 40-year-old outfielder was hitting .320/.397/.500 through 67 plate appearance in April and May. He appeared to be the lefty bat off the bench that the Mets needed. Alas, it was not meant to be. Through June and July, Abreu hit .183/.289/.225, and, following today's loss to the Giants, the Mets designated him for assignment.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who hit .246/.328/.509 over two seperate stints with the big league club, will take Abreu's spot on the roster. Not only does Nieuwenhuis provide an upgrade over Abreu's offensive production, but he is far better defensively than the plodding Abreu. Nieuwenhuis will also likely take over the role of backup center fielder from Chris Young, who has been less than stellar when asked to man the position.

The Abreu experiment was low-risk for the Mets, and it actually did work for a brief period of time. With Abreu's productivity waning, though, the experiment has clearly run its course.

Three runs was not enough as the Mets could not hold two leads and lose the final game of the series.

The Mets continued their uniform carousel and busted out their camo uniforms for an early day game, but it was of no luck as they were defeated in an action-packed 4-3 game. Dillon Gee was opposite Tim Hudson, and neither pitcher got out of the sixth inning.

As a result, each team's bullpen had a large part to play in the outcome of today's game. For the first time in a long while, both Jeurys Familia and Jenrry Mejia gave up the pivotal runs and the back-end of the pen, which has been so reliable recently, failed the Mets. The team leaves Citi Field today six games under .500 and will embark on back-to-back division series in Washington and Philadelphia.

The Mets jumped Tim Hudson early and tagged him for two runs in the bottom of the first. After making a terrific catch to deny Hunter Pence of an extra-base hit to lead off the top of the first, Curtis Granderson worked Hudson for a tough nine pitch at-bat and earned himself a base on balls to open up the bottom half of the frame. Daniel Murphy followed up by quickly getting down 0-2 in the count, but Hudson could not put him away and hung a breaking ball middle-middle, which Murphy deposited over the fence in right field for his ninth home run of the year. Hudson got the next three batters out, but the Mets were able to get on the board early today—a welcome sight after being completely dominated by Madison Bumgarner last night.

The Giants managed to get to Gee in the third and tie the game up at two. Pence, who the Mets have had trouble getting out all series, hit a double with one out in the second. After getting Gregor Blanco to strike out, Gee elected to pitch around Buster Posey and walked him with first base open and two outs. Pablo Sandoval then rocketed a double to the gap in right-center which plated both Blanco and the hustling Posey all the way from first base. Gee got Brandon Belt to fly out but found himself walking back to the dugout with his lead gone.

The Mets were able to get their lead back with a run in the fifth. It started with Murphy, who hit a two-out single and then stole second base. The throw from Posey on the stolen base attempt was airmailed into center field and allowed Murphy to advance to third. Gregor Blanco collected the ball in center and fired it to third base, but that throw was also errant, though Murphy had to hold at third. David Wright finally got a break and drove in the run by narrowly legging out an infield single. The Mets were back on top 3-2.

The sixth inning saw both starting pitchers chased from the game. After Gee gave up a two-out double to Joe Panik, Terry Collins tapped Vic Black to close out the inning. With first base open, Black walked Juan Perez to bring up Travis Ishikawa, who was hitting for Hudson. Black got the him to strike out and kept Gee on the hook for the win.

Gee did not have great fastball command this afternoon, but he was able to get the Giants' batters to chase his breaking ball as he racked up six strikeouts in his five-and-two-thirds innings of work. He also allowed an uncharacteristic three walks, but two of them were to Posey. Gee was able to limit the damage and allow just the two runs in the third.

It was a gutsy start from Gee, and while he did not have his best stuff or work deep into the game, he kept the Mets in it. With so many young hurlers in the pipeline, these final two months appear to be critical for Gee if he would like to secure his rotation spot in the Mets' organization for the future. Although it was not a sterling outing, it was a step in the right direction.

Black was relied upon for just the one out, and Collins called on Jeurys Familia in the seventh inning, instead of his customary eighth inning, in a game which the Mets badly wanted to win before heading back out on the road. Today was not Familia's day, however, and he was extremely wild and could not preserve the lead.

Pence hit a triple to lead off the seventh—because of course he did—and Familia found himself in trouble immediately. Pence skied the ball to the left center gap that saw Chris Young and Lagares both come together at the outfield wall, but neither ended up with the ball in their glove. The triple was Pence's sixth extra-base hit of the series, and the Mets will be extraordinarily happy not to see him step up to the plate against them again this year.

Familia walked Blanco, and with Posey up at the plate, he issued a wild pitch and Pence was able to motor home from third. He could not find the strike zone against Posey and issued yet another walk. Sandoval hit a single that went in between Familia's legs all the way to Lagares in center, but Lagares gunned down Blanco at the plate. It was the only out Familia was able to record in what was his worst appearance in some time, and with the left-handed Brandon Belt due up, Josh Edgin trotted out from the bullpen. He needed just one pitch to get Belt to ground into a textbook 6-4-3 double play and keep the game tied at three.

The bottom of the seventh saw some more fireworks. With Javier Lopez on the mound and Lucas Duda up with two outs, he ran the at-bat to a full count, and rookie umpire Ben May called him out on a fastball strike three which Duda determined to be too low. The Mets' dugout took exception with this call as well, and Terry Collins began barking at the umpire from the dugout steps after Duda said what he had to say to the ump. May then turned to Collins and said "that's enough" but the manager did not heed this warning and was ejected from the game.

The game looked destined for extra innings but the Giants got a run off of Jenrry Mejia in the top of the ninth to give themselves their first lead of the day. Mejia got the first two hitters he faced out but then gave up a hit to Blanco, his first of the entire series, who then stole second to put a runner in scoring position with Posey up at the plate. Posey walked for the fourth time of the day, which brought up Pablo Sandoval, who hit an automatic double down the left field line to score Blanco from second. Mejia got the next out from there to end the inning.

San Francisco's closer, Santiago Casilla, came on and made quick work with the Mets in the bottom of the ninth to put them out of their misery.

Lagares had quite an adventurous game today. He racked up three hits, got thrown out on the basepaths early on, did not come up with one or two fly balls he may have gotten to on a different day, and he threw out a runner at home on an exquisite throw to keep the game tied in the seventh. He has quickly grown into a very entertaining young player to watch, as he is able to influence the game in so many different ways.

While we have grown accustomed to seeing Familia and Mejia being lights out, today was a blip on that radar screen. Familia was just a mess today, and it will be interesting to see how he rebounds when he is called upon in Washington for his next appearance. The run Mejia gave up was more of the unfortunate variety, as he retired the first two batters he faced and just couldn't get out of the inning. He made a mistake on the double he allowed to Sandoval, as he got him to a two-strike count and showed him too much of the strike zone on the hit.

Besides the Murphy homer, the Mets' offense was pretty stagnant all day. They managed just one other extra-base hit and were unable to put anything together to add to their run total. The Mets will now look to right the ship in Washington tomorrow.

SB Nation GameThreads

* Amazin' Avenue GameThread
* McCovey Chronicles GameThread

Win Probability Added

(What's this?)

Big winners: Josh Edgin, 21.6%; Daniel Murphy, 12.5%
Big losers: Jenrry Mejia, -33.4%; Jeurys Familia, -28.8%
Teh aw3s0mest play: Daniel Murphy home run in the first
Teh sux0rest play: Pablo Sandoval double in the ninth
Total pitcher WPA: -30.1%
Total batter WPA: -19.9%
GWRBI!: Pablo Sandoval double in the ninth

Left-handed relief pitcher Jack Leathersich has been promoted to the Mets' Triple-A affiliate.

The Mets have promoted left-handed reliever Jack Leathersich from the Double-A Binghamton to the Triple-A Las Vegas 51s. Leathersich has been a strikeout artist throughout his young minor league career, and this season is no exception, as he has struck out 15.46 opponents per nine innings to date. While Leathersich collects strikeouts in bunches, his frequent command issues have kept expectations in check for the young lefty so far.

This season with Binghamton, Leathersich has managed to lower his walk rate to 4.11 per nine innings, a solid improvement upon his 2013 numbers. While this improvement is promising, it is still higher than ideal for a relief pitcher.  Leathersich has also managed to keep the ball in the park at every level he has pitched so far, giving up only 0.2 home runs per nine this season and never giving up more than 0.62 in his professional career. This ability to avoid the long ball has helped mitigate some of the risk of walking so many hitters.

Leathersich has an interesting reverse platoon split, pitching considerably better vs right-handed hitters.  His slash line vs opposite handed hitters is a stellar .200/.289/.238, while left-handed hitters fare slightly better to the tune of a .254/.359/.373 line.  His relative effectiveness against hitters from both sides of the plate will make him a potentially valuable weapon if he can continue to lower his walk rate as he develops.

He will face a considerable challenge in the hitter-friendly confines of Vegas, which will test his ability to keep the ball in the park, and require that he reduce his walk rates as he enters a more offensively-oriented league.

deGrom's recent stretch of pitching has been impressive.

Mets rookie Jacob deGrom has been named the National League Rookie of the Month for July. In 32 ⅓ innings over five starts in the month, deGrom had a 1.39 ERA with 38 strikeouts and just 7 walks. He did not allow a home run over that span, either, and had a 1.44 FIP as a result.

Those results are impressive by the standards of all major league pitchers, too—not just rookies. Among qualified starting pitchers, deGrom ranked seventh in ERA and second in FIP in July. The only pitcher to best deGrom in FIP was the spectacular Chris Sale.

When it comes to the National League Rookie of the Year race, deGrom would have a pretty good case if he were to keep pitching the way he has been lately. His 1.7 fWAR ranks third in the league and trails only Billy Hamilton of the Reds—whose value is derived largely from his defense by the metric—and Arizona shortstop Chris Owings.

Catch up on all of yesterday’s minor league action from around the Mets farm system!

*All results from games played on Monday, August 4^th, 2014

Triple-A - Las Vegas 51's (65-53)_______________________________________

LAS VEGAS 4, SACRAMENTO 2 (Box)

• CF Matt den Dekker: 3-4, R, HR, RBI, BB; You've got to respect what MdD has done since he was last sent down. He's hit .386/.469/.634, and that's before tonight.
• SS Matt Reynolds: 0-4, 2 K
• DH Allan Dykstra: 1-4, R, 2B, 2 K
• RF Andrew Brown: 1-3, R, RBI, BB, K
  
• 3B Daniel Muno: 0-4
  
• 1B Brandon Allen: 1-4, R, 2 K
  
• C Kevin Plawecki: 1-4
• LF Cesar Puello: 1-4, 2B, 2 RBI; I might elaborate on this point later in the week, but I'm starting to think the Mets should actually just promote Cesar.
• 2B Anthony Seratelli: 0-2, 2 BB, 2 K
• RHP Logan Verrett: 8 IP, 3 H, R, ER, 3 BB, 7 K

Double-A - Binghamton Mets (67-47)_____________________________________

NO GAME (SCHEDULE)

Advanced-A - St. Lucie Mets (22-19 / 62-48)_____________________________________

ST. LUCIE 10, CLEARWATER 4 (Box)

• DH Jeff McNeil: 2-5, 2 R, 2B, BB, K
  
• LF Maikis De La Cruz: 4-6, 2 R, 2B, 3 RBI
  
• 2B Phil Evans: 1-4, R, 2 BB
  
• 1B Cole Frenzel: 2-3, R, HR, RBI, 2 BB
• SS Gavin Cecchini: 0-3, RBI, BB
• CF Gilbert Gomez: 0-4, BB, 3 K
  
• RF Eudy Pina: 1-5, R, 2 K
• RHP Domingo Tapia: 5 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K; I honestly believe I've been on recap duty for every single one of Tapia's starts this season and I'm beginning to think I'm being punished for something
• LHP Dario Alvarez: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, BB, K; When did this promotion happen? Certainly a deserved promotion but the timing is odd.

Low-A -Savannah Sand Gnats(26-16 / 70-38)__________________________________

POSTPONED (RAIN)

Short-A - Brooklyn Cyclones (27-24)__________________________________

CONNECTICUT 3, BROOKLYN 4 (Box)

• CF John Mora: 2-4, R, 2B, K; I see my boy John Mora got promoted from the GCL. Well deserved.
  
• SS Amed Rosario: 0-4, R
  
• LF Michael Conforto: 1-4, R, RBI, K
• 3B Jhoan Urena: 1-4, 2B, K
  
• C Tyler Moore: 0-3, BB, K
  
• RF Michael Bernal: 1-3, RBI, 2 K
  
• C Tomas Nido: 1-3
• DH Adrian Abreu: 1-3, R, 2B
• RHP Casey Meisner: 6 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K
  

Rookie -Kingsport Mets(20-24)__________________________________

KINGSPORT 4, PULASKI 6 (Box)

• SS Luis Guillorme: 1-5, K
• 2B Branden Kaupe: 1-3, BB, K
  
• DH Oswald Caraballo: 0-4, BB, K
• RF Wuilmer Becerra: 1-5, R, 2 K
  
• 1B Zach Mathieu: 1-4, R, 2B, 2 RBI, 3 K
• DH Vicente Lupo: 2-3, R, 2B, BB, K
• RHP Persio Reyes: 4 IP, 4 H, R, ER, BB, 6 K

Rookie -GCL Mets(20-18)__________________________________

GCL MARLINS 1, GCL METS 2 (Box)

Star of the Night

Maikis De La Cruz, who, in addition to going 4-6 with three RBI, robber Clearwater of a game-tying three-run home run to end the bottom of the eighth.

Goat of the Night

Gilbert Gomez.

Your Tuesday morning dose of New York Mets and MLB news, notes, and links.

Meet the Mets

The Mets managed to hold a lead for the better part of eight innings yesterday, but it wasn't enough for the Amazins' as the bullpen faltered and the Giants walked away with a tough 4-3 victory. If you want to relive the pain, choose your recap here: Amazin' Avenue short, long, NY Times, Daily News, NY Post, Star-Ledger, Newsday

Bobby Abreu was designated for assignment last night, in what could've been the former great's last game.

Jenrry Mejia was reportedly suffering from some lower back pain yesterday, as Ron Darling speculated on the TV broadcast.

Howie Kussoy writes that Dillon Gee's struggles should be concerning.

Bill Madden says  to forget this year, and let the Mets young talent play.

David Wright has suggested that his shoulder is not the problem, as his struggles continue.

Mike Vaccaro says that if the Mets are serious about this year, they need to get rid of Chris Young.

Steven Marcus talks about how Juan Lagares is getting back in a groove.

Around the N.L. East

The Orioleswhacked the Nationals 7-3 in the only other N.L. East game yesterday.

The folks at The Good Phight are wondering if Ruben Amaro forced the coaching staff to play Ryan Howard.

Around the Majors

The Padres may be close to finding their GM, as Yankees assistant GM Billy Eppler is considered a favorite.

The Piratesmay be withoutAndrew McCutchen for a month.

The Cubs have called up prospect Javier Baez - a player who was linked to some Mets trade talks.

Mike Petriello takes a look at some of the worst strike zones in the bigs.

Yesterday at AA

Michael Avallone writes that Terry Collins decisions are getting worse, and wants to know why Wilmer Flores isn't playing every day.

Nic Tatano writes about his life as a Mets fan away from New York.

Chris McShane posted his Player Performance Meters. Pitchers can be found here, and position players here.

If you see a link you think would be a great addition to Mets Morning News, send an email to our tips address, tips@grission.com, and we'll try to add it in.

More from Amazin' Avenue

Follow @AmazinAvenueFollow @SBNationMLB

• Mets Daily Farm Report, August 5, 2014: Matt den Dekker is crushing in Vegas
• Jacob deGrom named National League Rookie of the Month for July
• Mets promote Jack Leathersich to Triple-A Vegas
• Mets vs. Giants Recap: Goodbye San Francisco and don't come back
• Mets designate Bobby Abreu for assignment, recall Kirk Nieuwenhuis

The Mets gambled and lost on Chris Young, and now it's time to part ways.

Chris Young’s one-year, $7.25 million contract was a justifiable move for the Mets prior to the 2014 season. However, Young has had perhaps his worst year as a big leaguer, driving the ball with much less authority and generally failing to get on base. In short, he has essentially been a replacement-level player.

Though Young was hardly spectacular in 2013, his line-drive percentage of 21.6% was the second highest of his career. The increase in line-drive frequency suggested that his BABIP of .237 was a bit unlucky, which offered some hope that his luck might even out in 2014. Young is hitting a lot of fly balls this year (52.6%) and making more contact (82.1%) than he ever has before, but his fly balls are simply not traveling very far. It’s difficult to expect more of Young’s batted balls to fall in for hits when he is hitting so many weak fly balls.

An impressive infield-hit percentage of 18.6% shows that the 30-year-old Young can still leg out a single, but his 30.7% ground ball rate means he doesn’t get many opportunities to display his speed. Young has always contributed value on the basepaths over the course of his career, and despite his struggles at the plate, his performance on the bases remains solid.

Dave Cameron first identified Chris Young as a potential 2014 free-agent value in his November 5 article, “The Bargains of the 2014 Free Agent Class.” He noted that Young has historically hit lefties well (.820 career OPS) and has been quite valuable in center field over his career.

“For $7 million per year, you’re not expecting a superstar, and are just looking for a guy to avoid putting up a zero, and Young looks like a guy who could give you, at minimum, good defense and some thump against lefties.”

Clearly, the bar was not set high for Young heading into this season. Cameron’s analysis was certainly understandable, as Young has hit .256/.359/.426 against lefties in his career. However, Young’s production against lefties has fallen dramatically this year, and his defense in center field is nowhere near his former levels.

Against lefties this season, Young is hitting .153/.293/.254. That doesn’t even begin to replace Marlon Byrd’s production against lefties in 2013. Byrd hit .344/.376/.583 against lefties last year; he provided the type of right-handed power that the 2014 Mets lack.

Cameron’s projection for a two-year, $14 million contract proved pretty accurate for Young, at least on a per-year basis. Though Byrd signed a two-year, $16 million contract with a vesting $8 million option for 2016, Young’s $7.25 million deal with the Mets is pretty close to what Byrd is going to make in 2014. The gap in production between Byrd and Young in 2014, on the other hand, is quite large.

With a slugging percentage of .481 and a wRC+ of 122, Marlon Byrd has been worth 2.1 fWAR in 2014 despite defensive limitations. ZiPS sees Byrd as a 2.9 win player in 2014, while Steamer projects Byrd to add 0.4 fWAR over the rest of the season for a total of 2.5 wins. After taking age-related decline into account, Byrd can be projected for around 2.3 wins in 2015. He may end up being worth $8 million in 2016 if his option vests, so this isn’t a contract that’s likely to cripple the Phillies in the future, which is more than you can say for many of their other contracts.

In his May 21 article, Brian Mangan pointed to a strong 286-foot average fly ball distance as one of many reasons that Young would salvage his season.

“Today, Chris Young is up to 81st in baseball with an average of 286 feet per fly ball.This number, aside from being pretty good just in a vacuum, means that he’s been hitting fly balls really hard...”

At this point in the season, Young’s 271.45-foot average fly ball and home run distance places him at 201st overall in baseball. His average fly ball distance has actually dropped since 2013, when it stood at 272.27 feet. Young’s 2013 fly ball distance isn’t exactly impressive, either, as Eric Young put up an average of 279.67 feet in 598 plate appearances in 2013. With 62 fly balls, Young’s HR/FB rate has stabilized, and it’s the worst of his career at 7.9. It doesn’t seem likely that his power is going to return this season.

Although Young has struggled this year, Bobby Abreu was designated for assignment yesterday to make room for Kirk Nieuwenhuis, which probably buys Young a bit more time.

ZiPS predicts 0.4 fWAR for Chris Young over the rest of the season, thanks largely to an increase in defensive value, which means he’d be exactly replacement level this year. His one-year contract isn’t going to restrict the Mets’ 2015 free-agent spending, but the Mets gambled and lost. If Young had re-established his value in 2014, the Mets could have traded him in the same manner as Marlon Byrd and John Buck in 2013. The Mets received useful players in Vic Black and Dilson Herrera from the Pirates in the Byrd-Buck trade, and the organization may have envisioned trading Young in an optimistic scenario.

That’s not likely to happen, and it’s time for the Mets to start discussing their left field options for 2015.