Your Monday morning dose of New York Mets and Major League Baseball news, notes, and links.
Meet the Mets
Curtis Granderson hit two home runs, but Zack Wheeler lasted just 3.2 innings, and the Mets lost to the Giants 6-4. It was New York's sixth straight defeat during what started out as a promising 11-game road trip.
Recap Parade:Amazin' Avenue, MLB.com, ESPN NY, New York Times, Post, Daily News, Star-Ledger
The Daily News reports that Travis d'Arnaud was "shocked" and "visibly upset" upon hearing on Saturday night that he had been demoted to Triple-A.
Terry Collins spoke about how it's hard to succeed in the majors when you make adjustments as often as d'Arnaud has been doing at the plate.
Despite the Mets' recent struggles, Collins stuck with his plan to give Wright the day off on Sunday. Eric Campbell started in Wright's place at third base yesterday, but the captain ended up entering the game for one at-bat as a pinch-hitter.
Gonzalez Germen is getting closer to full health, and he's likely to take Dana Eveland's spot in the bullpen when he is activated off of the disabled list.
Around the NL East
Jordan Zimmermann tossed one of the season's most dominant pitching performances against the Padres yesterday: nine innings, two hits, zero walks, and 12 strikeouts in a 6-0 win.
The Braves led 2-0 after six innings in Phoenix, but Aaron Harang imploded, and the Snakes rallied to take down Atlanta, 6-5.
Philadelphia continued to struggle, falling to the Reds 4-1 for the club's eighth loss in its last nine games.
Miami nearly got swept by the Cubs just like the Mets did, but the Fish escaped Chicago on Sunday with a 4-3 come-from-behind victory.
Around the Majors
Felix Hernandez struck out a career-high 15 batters in seven innings, and the Mariners went on to defeat the Rays 5-0.
The benches cleared in Baltimore after Oakland's Fernando Abad just missed hitting Manny Machado with a pitch and Machado responded by throwing his bat down the third base line.
David Ortiz crushed a three-run home run off of Detroit's Joba Chamberlain in the top of the ninth inning to give the Red Sox the lead in a 5-3 victory.
Does the Kendrys Morales signing make Minnesota a dark horse in the AL Central race?
Jose Bautista is now the overall leader in American League All-Star votes.
Yesterday at AA
Alex Nelson gave us scouting reports for the Mets' 2014 ninth-round draft pick, Michael Katz, and the team's eighth-round selection, Dash Winningham.
Need more draft analysis? Sean McNeill examined how first-round pick Michael Conforto fits in well with the Mets' organizational hitting philosophy.
The Mets' offensive struggles at home are often blamed on the size of Citi Field, but Daniel Stein-Sayles shows us that the Amazins also strike out a lot more often in Flushing than they do on the road.
On this date in Mets history, the team retired Gil Hodges's number 14 and Bobby Valentine donned a hilarious disguise to sneak back into a game he had been ejected from.