Your Friday morning dose of New York Mets and Major League Baseball news, notes, and links.
Meet the Mets
Jon Niese and Kyle Lohse dueled to a 1-1 draw for eight innings, forcing the rubber game of this week's Mets vs. Brewers series to be decided in extra innings. New York loaded the bases with one out in the 11th, but Wilmer Flores grounded into a fielder's choice and Anthony Recker was called out on strikes before being ejected for arguing with home plate umpire Angel Hernandez. In the 13th, the Brewers cashed in with a Jonathan Lucroy two-run homer to grab a 3-1 victory.
Recap Parade:Amazin' Avenue, MLB.com, ESPN NY, New York Times, Post, Daily News, Star-Ledger
Jenrry Mejia had to leave the game after pitching just two-thirds of an inning because of back stiffness. The right-hander was warming up to pitch the 11th inning when he felt his back tighten up and was replaced by Gonzalez Germen. Mejia is day-to-day for now and we'll probably learn more about the issue later today.
After hanging a fateful curveball to Lucroy, Carlos Torreswasn't too happy with himself.
The Mets' 2014 chances look pretty bleak right now, but everything would be better if Harvey were healthy, right? Even David Wright's hitting!
The Daily News is also reporting that Harvey has replaced Daniel Murphy as the Mets' MLBPA player representative.
Marc Carig wrote about what Travis d'Arnaud can learn from Lucroy. The Brewers' backstop was once struggling with his offensive game, but has since blossomed into one of the game's top catchers.
Would the Mets be better off today if they had completely bottomed out like the Astros did? This argument is easier to make now that Wright isn't hitting for power and Houston's prospects are smacking the ball around.
After taking a few months off to recover from open-heart surgery, Frank Viola is finally back to coaching in Las Vegas.
Around the NL East
The Braves and Rockies nearly came to blows in Thursday afternoon's 10-3 Colorado victory. Corey Dickerson probably didn't mean to hit Atlanta's Gerald Laird with his backswing, but that didn't stop Braves reliever David Carpenter from throwing at Dickerson and creating a tense situation.
The Phillies continued to soften up the Padres with another win over San Diego, and Ruben Amaro continued to baffle the baseball world.
Miami is beginning to conserve pitching prospect Andrew Heaney's innings to prepare for a scenario in which the team needs him in the majors at the end of the season. The Fish could also get a boost when Rafael Furcal finally makes his 2014 debut.
Washington failed to finish off a sweep of the Giants. Meanwhile, manager Matt Williams says that Ryan Zimmerman will only play left field for as long as Bryce Harper is sidelined. Also, Gio Gonzalez is close to returning to the rotation.
Around the Majors
Tigers ace Max Scherzer threw his first career complete game to defeat Chris Sale and the White Sox, 4-0.
Chris Carter (no, not that Chris Carter) blasted a walk-off home run to lift Houston over the Diamondbacks.
Jeff Sullivan at FanGraphs took a look at which players are overachieving and which are underachieving this season, according to preseason WAR projections.
Star of Mad Men and Million Dollar Arm, actor Jon Hamm is a huge Cardinals fan. Here is his bobblehead. It's only a matter of time before Seinfeld Bobblehead Night at Citi Field.
Topps is printing sabermetric baseball cards!
Yesterday at AA
Alex Nelson posted scouting reports for the Mets' 2014 20th-round pick Jim Duff, as well as 19th-round pick Bryce Beeler.
On this date in 2012, R.A. Dickey pitched a masterpiece of a one-hitter at Tampa Bay.