PHOENIX – When things are going as well as they have for the Mets, the ball usually bounces their way and it has been since June 6. But yesterday it skidded past them.
Jay Bell’s seventh inning RBI double slipped elusively past Rickey Henderson in left field and Tony Womack burned nitrogen to score all the way from first with the go-ahead run and the Diamondbacks went on to win 5-3 in the second game of the series.
After Orel Hershiser and Armando Reynoso tangled up in an engaging pitch-for-pitch duel, the Mets’ bullpen, a bulwark for them all season, gave up single runs in the seventh and eighth innings for the defeat.
Dennis Cook gave up the double to Bell and therefore took the loss. At first it looked as if Henderson totally botched the play, but replays showed he didn’t have a great chance to cut the ball off, especially with its low bounce. But Cook, in the depression of the post-loss interview, clearly wasn’t happy with it.
“I’m not going to comment on the double,” Cook said. “That ball made it to the fence. It wasn’t a bad pitch. It was a good job of hitting.”
Henderson said he had no shot to get to the ball.
“Yeah, it just skidded past me,” he said.
Meanwhile the Braves won their ninth game in a row, so the local nine fell 2 games back in the National League East, but the Reds lost also, so their three-game lead in the Wild Card race remained intact.
“I don’t care about the Braves,” Cook said. “If we don’t win, we’re not going anywhere. If we keep worrying about the Braves until we’re blue in the face and keep getting the [bleep] kicked out of us, it ain’t going to mean anything.”
The Mets haven’t been getting anything kicked out of them lately and last night, except for Matt Williams’ insurance home run off Pat Mahomes in the eighth, most of their hits were just balls that bounced the right way, or the wrong way in the Mets opinion.
Cook, who took the decision in the Mets last failure Tuesday against the Astros, fell to 10-4. He allowed one of the runners he inherited from Hershiser to score to tie the game, and then gave up the go-ahead run in the seventh on Bell’s double.
Williams homered in the eighth and Matt Mantei closed in out with a 1-2-3 ninth for his 24th save as the Diamondbacks came back from a 3-1 deficit to win.
The game featured and excellent pitching duel between a pair of savvy rghthanders in Hershiser and former Met Reynoso, who improved to 10-2. Reynoso allowed just one earned run on six hits, while Hershiser gave up three in 52/3 innings.
“Too bad it wasn’t Williamsport,” Hershiser said, referring to the Little League World Series. “Then it would be a six-inning game.”
Hershiser was essentially brought in to fill the void left when the Mets decided to let Reynoso go. Although he had good success in his two years in New York, the Mets were concerned about Reynoso’s shaky elbow and also the fact that he would make too much money on the free-agent market for their taste.
Indeed, Reynoso signed a two-year $5.25 million contract, and the Mets never even made an offer.
Hershiser and Reynoso are very similar in the way they pitch. They both use off-speed pitches a lot, but aren’t what you’d call junk ballers because both can bring reasonable heat to the equation. Last night, Hershiser was throwing a fastball in the upper 80s and Reynoso was matching him. But where they are both so effective is how they fool hitters and keep them off balance.
Whereas Hershiser will rely on a sinker, Reynoso throws a changeup and slider a lot when he gets ahead in the count.
Reynoso kept the Mets off balance all night and held Edgardo Alfonzo, John Olerud and Mike Piazza hitless.
“I wasn’t doing anything different,” he said. “It’s the same way I’ve been pitching. Lot’s of changeups and sliders, keep them off balance. It’s always tough to face the Mets. but we were fortunate to come back and win this game.”
