The Mets completed a three-game sweep of the Rockies, winning 2-1 this afternoon at Citi Field. For the Mets, it was their first three-game sweep of the season at home this season. Dillon Gee was very efficient over his 7.2 innings of work, just as he's been of late, and the Mets' bullpen held strong over the final inning and a third despite some odd stratgery on the part of Terry Collins. So it goes.
There was not a whole lot of action in this one but at the start, it looked like Gee might be in for a rough day after he allowed first inning singles to Charlie Blackmon and DJ LeMahieu. With runners at first and second with nobody out, Corey Dickerson hit a fly ball to deep right center field that Marlon Byrd tracked down. Both runners aggressively tried to advance bases but Byrd alertly tossed the ball into second and cut down the trail runner LeMahieu for a double play. With two outs recorded, Gee got Michael Cuddyer out to end inning.
The run scoring started in the fourth inning when Dickerson hit a long home run into the bullpen to get the Rockies on the board. Down 1-0, the Mets stepped up to the plate in the bottom half of the frame and worked to nullify that lead. Daniel Murphy and Marlon Byrd singled and then Ike Davis walked, loading the bases with nobody out for Wilmer Flores. Flashing back to Wednesday night, the Venezuelan infielder came up big with the bases loaded in that game, ripping a three-run double down the left field line to blow it wide open. This time, Flores didn't come up as big but did sort of get the job done, knocking in a run with a slow ground ball to the shortstop that he nearly beat out at first base. With one out and a runner at second base, Anthony Recker hit a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Byrd with the go-ahead run. The Mets had a chance for more that inning after Omar Quintanilla was walked intentionally. Dillon Gee hit an infield single to second base which should've loaded up the bases but the second baseman LeMahieu caught Ike Davis going too far around third base and he was tagged out in a rundown, ending the inning.
The Rockies had one more threat in the eighth inning, when after getting two outs, Gee allowed a single to the second baseman LeMahieu. Despite Gee only sitting at 87 pitches, Terry Collins came out to remove him from the game with Corey Dickerson coming up to the plate. Collins opted to bring in Scott Rice and Rockies' manager Walt Weiss opted to replace Dickerson with Troy Tulowitzki. The matchup was clearly not a good one for the Mets and Rice probably ended up doing Collins a favor by walking Tulowitzki on four pitches. With Michael Cuddyer stepping up to the plate, Collins went right back out to the mound and brought David Aardsma in. After falling behind 2-0 to Cuddyer, Aardsma got him to hit a weak fly ball to left field off the end of the bat to close out the inning. New closer LaTroy Hawkins pitched 1-2-3 ninth inning, picking up his second save of the season.
SB Nation Coverage
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* Purple Row Gamethread
Win Probability Added
Big winners: Dillon Gee (34.8%), LaTroy Hawkins (14.8%)
Big losers: Michael Cuddyer (-17.8%), Jonathan Herrera (-10.8)
Teh aw3s0mest play:Marlon Byrd's single to center in the 4th (13.1%)
Teh sux0rest play:Corey Dickerson's home run in the 4th (-13.7%)
Total pitcher WPA: 55.1%
Total batter WPA: -5.1%
GWRBI!: Anthony Recker