SNAKE BITTEN
Mets drop fourth straight with loss to visiting Diamondbacks
ON FRIDAY NIGHT, there were several ways for the Mets to view the Arizona Diamondbacks. Their opponents at the outset of a three-game series at Citi Field, sure. Their tormentors in a 5-4 loss (the Mets’ fourth straight), definitely.
But the D-backs also represented the attainment of an ideal toward which the Mets are striving.
Twelve months ago, few outside the Arizona front office considered the team a plausible contender. The D-backs were a young team under the new regime of general manager Kevin Towers, expected to develop into a decent club, followed by contention i n future seasons. But they were serious about being good immediately, and won the National League West.
If that hopeful formulation sounds familiar in Flushing, it is because the Mets have shouted since February that they are better than the public believes, due to young talent and a few veteran leaders. To hear Terry Collins declare it, his team can contend now.
Will the Mets achieve what the D-backs did last season? Probably not, but they are 13-13 — somewhat better than expected, and better than Arizona’s 13-16 record on May 5 last year. Perhaps, at least, the Diamondbacks’ example can provide the Mets with evidence to support their claim that anything is possible.
“I hope we become the same kind of team,” Collins said. “There’s no reason why we can’t. We have pitching that’s good enough; it has shown it can be dynamic. When our lineup is out there, it’s pretty good.”
That proved true in the early part of Friday’s game, after Dillon Gee allowed a two-run homer to Cody Ransom in the second inning, but not later. The Mets charged back from a 2-0 deficit in the third, when Scott Hairston hit a two-run double and Ike Davis and Andres Torres also drove in runs for a 4-2 lead.
Gee left with that lead but watched Jon Rauch waste it after he entered with two on and one out in the eighth. The plan was simple: Execute a first-pitch slider to Paul Goldschmidt.
“Hanging,” was how Rauch described the pitch he actually threw. “It probably looked as big as a beach ball coming in, and he put a real good swing on it.”
Goldschmidt knocked a tworun double to center, highlighting a rally that began when Davis committed an error to start the inning, allowing a Justin Upton grounder to skip by him.
How did the D-backs become such a strong team? The easy narrative points to new manager Kirk Gibson’s leadership, and he was surely a factor. But on a deeper level, the club relied on a combination of maturing players and an improved bullpen.
Setup man David Hernandez and closer J.J. Putz silenced the Mets on Friday, providing a contrast to New York’s struggling relievers.
“Youthful energy is fun,” said David Wright, whose team hopes to receive the same from Jon Niese, Lucas Duda, Kirk Nieuwenhuis and other developing players.
“It looked like they were having fun, not getting caught up in the moment. They walked on the big stage, let people put the bull’seye on their back and kind of embraced it.”