The Mets offense was blanked and Zack Wheeler struggled on a particularly forgettable day.
Today was a day filled with ire for Mets fans. This morning, at a Q&A session with season ticket holders, Sandy Alderson said that he thought the Mets were close to being contenders (which was met with groans). The Mets couldn't have looked further from contenders today, as their hopeful ace-of-the-future got whacked around and the Mets offense continued to perfect its Harry Houdini act.
This was never much of a game for the Mets, as after a Seth Smith single and a Chase Headley walk, the Padres looked primed to go in the first inning. Yonder Alonso clubbed a double to bring a run in, and Wheeler followed it up with a wild pitch to score Chase Headley. The Mets would threaten in the bottom of the inning, after Ruben Tejada singled for one of the Mets two hits, David Wright walked, and Bobby Abreu moved Tejada to third base, but nothing came of it.
The Padres would tack on a third run in the third inning when Everth Cabrera scored on a Chase Headley single. They would tack on another run in the fourth, when Cameron Maybin scored on a single by pitcher Jesse Hahn, and put the icing on the cake in the eighth when Chase Headley smacked a home run to further the Padres lead to 5-0.
Zack Wheeler, who had been terrific in his last five starts, didn't much impress as he labored through 5 innings and 100 pitches. Wheeler was consistenly falling behind in counts, and walked 3 batters while striking out 4. This is not the kind of performance that Wheeler - who was looking to turn the corner - had hoped for against a team who entered the day with a league-worst .215 batting average.
If the Mets' offensive woes weren't a concern before, it's hard not to see how fans won't be reactionary after this loss. Chris Young continues to look incredibly lost at the plate, David Wright still is mired in a slump, and Matt den Dekker still shows little offensively. On top of that, to get a single hit off of a rookie pitcher making his second career start against the worst offensive team in the league is about as infuriating as it gets.
This loss pushes the Mets to 30-38 and brings them back to the basement of the East, at 6.0 games behind the Braves. They'll try to right the ship tomorrow with a 1:10pm ET Father's Day matinee against the Padres. Ian Kennedy will take on Daisuke Matsuzaka.
SB Nation GameThreads
* Amazin' Avenue GameThread
* Gaslamp Ball GameThread
Win Probability Added
Big winners: David Wright +9.3%, Ruben Tejada +1.2%
Big losers: Zack Wheeler -24.7%, Chris Young -10.1%
Teh aw3s0mest play: Bobby Abreu walk in the fourth inning +6.0%
Teh sux0rest play: Yonder Alonso double in the first inning -12.7%
Total pitcher WPA: -24.1%
Total batter WPA: -25.9%
GWRBI!: Yonder Alonso RBI double in the first inning