It took just one batter for Jeremy Hefner to dim the afterglow of Matt Harvey's masterpiece start, just one hitter for him to allow a home run and remind everyone just how big the gap is between Harvey and the rest of the Mets' rotation.
The winless Hefner wasn't terrible in the Mets' 6-3 loss to the White Sox Wednesday night, but he was far from terrific, and that's exactly what the Amazin's need from their starter, with the way they have hit lately.
The Mets have mustered four runs in their past 20 innings and, despite Lucas Duda coming to the plate as the potential tying run in the eighth, never appeared to threaten in front of an announced crowd of 21,470 fans at soggy Citi Field.
After his nine innings of one-hit ball on Tuesday, Harvey is 4-0 with a 1.28 ERA. But after Hefner allowed eight hits and four runs (all earned) in his six middling innings of work last night, the rest of the Mets' rotation not named Harvey has struggled with a 4.96 ERA.
It was a disappointing outing for Hefner (0-4), unable to build on a solid outing last Tuesday in Miami. After struggling through his first four starts with a bloated 7.07 ERA, he seemingly had righted the ship. Over his previous two starts he posted a sterling 1.80 ERA and hoped to carry that over against Chicago.
"It's all about command,'' manager Terry Collins said beforehand. "The other day in Miami, his velocity was up [and] his command was better. He was ahead in the count and therefore he gets hitters to chase a little bit. When he's getting ahead, he pitches very well.''
He surrendered a home run last night to the first batter he faced. Alejandro De Aza went deep on a 2-2 pitch. Then, after Duda's second-inning solo shot into the right field loge for his seventh homer of the season, Hefner coughed up three more runs in the third.
After singles by De Aza and Alexi Ramirez, Hefner saw right fielder Alex Rios — whose infield single with two out in the seventh inning spoiled Harvey's perfect game — stroke an RBI double. Hefner fell behind Conor Gillaspie 3-1 before the third baseman dropped an 85 mph changeup into shallow left center between three converging Mets for two more RBIs and a 4-1 lead.
Hefner gave way after six, and reliever Scott Atchison surrendered a run in the seventh on Paul Konerko's RBI bloop single to right.
The Mets mustered next to nothing against White Sox starter Jake Peavy (4-1), who allowed just three hits and one run in his 6 2/3 innings.
Even their successes came with Keystone moments of high comedy. Pinch-hitter Justin Turner singled to right in the eighth inning, and as Ruben Tejada came around to make it 5-2 on Rios' error, Turner rounded first and face-planted in the dirt.
Duda crushed a solo shot into the right field loge in the second inning for his seventh home run of the season. But when he came up with two on and two out in the eighth, with a chance to tie the game, he fanned on a 73 mph curveball.
Rios absolutely crushed a Jeurys Familia fastball to left for a ninth-inning solo shot. Tejada delivered an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth, but the Mets got no closer.
brian.lewis@nypost.com
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Hefner struggles as Mets fall to White Sox
Dengan url
http://bahayaprostat.blogspot.com/2013/05/hefner-struggles-as-mets-fall-to-white.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Hefner struggles as Mets fall to White Sox
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Hefner struggles as Mets fall to White Sox
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar