DICKEY, JAYS BAFFLE METS:
Dickey stifles not-so-Amazin’ bats in Canada
TORONTO — On Wednesday morning, the Mets were dazed after a 3:30 a.m. arrival into Canada. By Thursday night, they simply looked confused.
Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey confounded the Mets while the defense behind Bartolo Colon looked lost at times in a 7-1 loss to the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre.
“I think a lot had to do with getting in at 3:30 in the morning. I know they did, too, but I think that has had a little bit to do with it,” veteran outfielder Michael Cuddyer said. “I think there was some carryover tonight.”
The Mets (36-32) were swept by the Blue Jays (36-32) in the two-game series in Toronto after the Mets swept a two-game set at Citi Field earlier in the week.
Dickey, who won 20 games and the Cy Young with the Mets in 2012, shut his old team down for seven innings. He allowed one run on three hits, walked five and struck out seven. Dickey took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, which was broken up by Juan Lagares’ two-out double, and shut out the Mets until the eighth. Lucas Duda homered with one out in the eighth, but the 40-year-old still picked up his third win of the season.
“You just forget it,” Cuddyer said of the struggles against the knuckleballer. “You are not going to see him again, you are not going to face another knuckleballer this season. You just move on.”
The Mets were not much of a challenge for Dickey as they once again seemed to leave their bats at Citi Field.
Duda’s home run snapped the Mets’ season high-tying 21-inning scoreless streak that dated back to the third inning of Tuesday night’s win at Citi Field. They have managed a major-league worst 95 runs on the road this season, and Thursday night was the 22nd time in 31 road games they have scored three runs or less.
So, in the first battle of pitchers over 40 years old since Jamie Moyer faced Greg Maddux in 2008, Dickey clearly had the upper hand on Colon, the 42-year-old righthander who was not his sharpest, giving up seven runs (six earned) on nine hits while walking one and striking out four in 4.1 innings. But he also did not have much support behind him.
In the second, Dilson Herrera was unable to field Chris Colabello’s leadoff grounder that bounced off the mound. Ruben Tejada then botched Russell Martin’s grounder to third, and the Mets just got the out at first, instead of the double play. Kevin Pillar drove in Colabello with a single to center for the Blue Jays’ unearned run.
In the fourth, things got even uglier for Colon and the defense. With two on and one out, shortstop Wilmer Flores leapt at Pillar’s line drive, but it knuckled on him and bounced off his glove and into center field. It was ruled a single, but Flores admitted it was a mistake. “I should have made the play,” Flores said.
Next, on Ryan Goins’ ground ball, Flores was taken out on an aggressive slide by Pillar and could not complete what would have been an inning-ending double
play. “He did what he had to do,” Flores said of the slide. “It was clean.”
Jose Reyes then slapped an RBI single past a diving Flores, before Josh Donaldson hit an RBI double to right and Jose Bautista finished it off with two-run single to center. Colon was not pointing fingers. “They play good defense behind me all the time,” Colon said through an interpreter. “Tonight was a different night. They hit the ball hard and well.” But Terry Collins saw the sluggishness that has hampered the Mets’ bats on the road starting to creep into their overall game. “I think it adds up a lot,” the Mets manager said. “I think it’s involved in a lot of things. . . . We’ve just got to again, pick up the pace and pick up the energy level a little bit.”