R.A. Dickey took complete control of the first game, in what begins the Mets’ second to last regular season series in Marlins Park. Robert Allen is earned his league leading 17th win and 3rd complete game shutout of the season against a struggling Marlins lineup.
The Mets struck first and jumped to a quick one run lead after Ike Davis lifted a sac fly ball that brought home Ruben Tejada.
Meanwhile, Dickey pitched spectacular and managed to protect the lead for all 9 innings, while fanning 7 batters and only letting up 5 hits. R.A. had an especially impressive 6th inning, where he had back-to-back strikeouts against Giancarlo Stanton and Carlos Lee. The inning ended with Dickey catching ex-Met Jose Reyes napping at first for a pickoff that gave Mets’ fans a sense of satisfaction.
Ike furthered the Met lead with a two run moonshot that put the Mets up 3-0 in the 7th inning. His 3 RBI’s proved to be enough to earn the win. Davis is now remarkably batting .224 with 25 homers and 74 RBIs after beginning the season with an abominable two month slump.
With this win New York improved their record to 62-70 and remain in fourth place among the NL East. Major takeaways from the game include Dickey solidifying his Cy Young candidacy and Ike continuing his offensive hot streak.
The NL Cy Young race seems to be narrowed down to Dickey, Johnny Cueto, and Gio Gonzalez, all of whom have earned 17 wins.
While the Mets now have almost no shot at making the playoffs, it is imperative that they take this series against Miami. The last place NL East Marlins are desperate to diminish the Mets’ 3 game lead and bump themselves up to fourth.
