Starlin Castro hit a three-run home run off of Jon Niese to cap off the scoring and make the score 7-0
The New York Mets ended the first half of the season prior to the All Star Game on Sunday in an afternoon game against the Chicago Cubs. Unfortunately for the Mets and their fans they fell by a score of 7-0. Jon Niese pitched well for the Mets but a rough first inning and one bad pitch to Starlin Castro cost the Mets’ lefty his eighth win of the year.
The Cubs jumped out to an early first inning lead with a bunch of dunk and bloop hits that started with Reed Johnson’s leadoff single followed by Castro’s single. Anthony Rizzo flew out to right field that Johnson advanced to third on, and then came in to score on Alfonso Soriano’s base knock. Jeff Baker was up next and doubled to score Castro, Baker and Soriano scored on the next hit off the bat of Geovany Soto’s single as the Cubs took a 4-0 lead.
New York got a one out single off of Ryan Dempster as Daniel Murphy singled to right field. With Ike Davis batting, Murphy caught the Cubs by surprise and stole his 15th career stolen base. In the bottom of the second Scott Hairston hit a one out triple but Jordany Vadespin and Josh Thole were unable to bring him in.
In the third inning the Mets got the first two batters on as Niese and Tejada singled but the next three went down in order to diffuse the threat. Both Dempster and Niese settled into a groove as Dempster didn’t allow a hit through his five innings on the mound.
-Check out the second half of the game after the break-
In the bottom of the sixth Murphy singled through the middle and Wright hit a hard shot into centerfield to put the first two men on base. Davis flew out, and Duda grounded into a double play to end the threat off of starter Paul Maholm who pitched out of the bullpen for the first time in his career with the all star break looming.
In the top of the seventh the Cubs poured on three more runs as Luis Valbuena and Johnson reached base on singles with two outs before Castro hit one over the left field wall that would have cleared the original dimensions to put Chicago up by a touchdown (with the good extra point).
Again the Mets got base runners in the bottom of the seventh but could not get anything going as they grounded into their second straight double play in terms of innings. After Manny Corpas got out of the seventh, James Russell had a 1-2-3 eighth inning.
Meanwhile on the Mets side of the mound, Pedro Beato, Tim Byrdak each threw scoreless innings of work after taking over for Niese in the eighth and ninth innings. Shawn Camp came on to pitch the ninth inning and retired Davis, Duda and Hairston to close out the 7-0 win for the baby bears.
The winning pitcher was Dempster who made his return from the DL and pitched five shutout innings allowing only four hits. Niese (7-4) took the loss after allowing all seven runs over seven innings of work for the Mets. Both bullpens were flawless as Maholm, Corpas, Russell, Camp, Beato and Byrdak combined to allow four hits over a combined six innings of work.
Game Ball: The fans who made their way to Citi Field had to put up with losing to one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball for the fourth time in six attempts in 2012. Thankfully Mets fans won’t have another home game until Friday, July 20 when they take on the Dodgers.
Up Next: The Mets as a team will not be in action until Friday when Johan Santana takes on Tim Hudson in Atlanta. In the meantime you can check out Double-A players Zack Wheeler and Wilmer Flores in the Futures Game later today, and see David Wright and RA Dickey in Kansas City on Tuesday night in the All Star Game.
