Game recap May 5: deGrom continues to struggle, offense rallies too little, too late

What Happened, In a Sentence:

The Mets couldn’t get a hit until the 7th inning and lost 5-3.

Unheralded Colin Rea Dominates

Padres starter Colin Rea entered Thursday’s game as a slightly above replacement player. He has 0.3 WARP in 59 big league innings and is projected for only 0.4 more wins this season. Rea walked David Wright in the first inning, but Michael Conforto staring at strike three set the tone for the game. Curtis Granderson had the Mets best hit ball through six innings, only to be robbed by John Jay’s spectacular over-the-shoulder catch on the warning track. The Padres shifted their infield all game to take advantage of Rea’s ability to induce ground ball after ground ball. Just after it started raining in San Diego, the shift backfired and Yoenis Cespedes hit a grounder past the vacated second base position. Purists may complain that the shift cost Rea a no-hitter, but he would not have retired 19 straight Mets’ batters before Cespedes without a shifting infield.

Rea probably reminded Mets fans of Chris Heston’s no-hitter from last year. The San Diego right hander relied on command, defense and a surprising pitch sequence. He entered the game with a profile of an extreme ground ball pitcher, so the Mets were looking for pitches moving down. In two strike counts, Rea started to use a two-seam fastball with more run in towards right handers than downward sink. Met hitters never caught on. After Cespedes’ hit, Neil Walker became the fourth Met to stare helplessly at a third strike that broke back in to the strike zone. Rea dominated in a game in which he only got six swings and misses.

San Diego gave the Mets a chance to get back in to the game in the 9th inning. Rea came out to try and get his first complete game at any level of professional baseball and promptly surrendered a home run to Granderson. The Padres called on ex-Florida Marlin Brad Hand, whoo walked Wright and surrendered a line-drive home run to Cespedes. Closer Fernando Rodney came in to get two fly balls and end the game.

Jacob DeGrom Struggles Through Five

“When in doubt, just throw strikes” seems like it would be a wise philosophy for a night game in San Diego’s marine layer, but it did not work for the Mets last night. Jacob deGrom’s mechanics were off at the start of the game, as Wil Myers drove a hanging slider over the wall in dead center. Two batters later, deGrom barely avoided another home run on a Brett Wallace line drive to the wall. The Mets got out of the inning but Mets killer Derek Norris doubled past Curtis Granderson and later scored on a single from Rea. deGrom continued to struggle with his mechanics and got hit hard. After five innings, eight hits and only two strikeouts, his night was done.

Logan Verrett came in for the sixth. After a strikeout, Norris got his eighth straight hit against the Mets with a home run to left. The Padres got their fifth and final run when Conforto dove for a weakly hit ball, came up short, and threw the ball back to the infield a bit offline.

Up Next:

San Diego is now 27-14 vs. the Mets in Petco Park. The forecast calls for rain during the day but only a 40 percent chance for storms Friday night.

Photo credit: Jake Roth – USA Today Sports