D-backs 5 Mets 3 PHOENIX – The bullpen has been a bulwark for the Mets all season, but last night was not one of its better outings in a 5-3 loss to the Diamondbacks at Bank One Ballpark.
Earlier yesterday, the Braves won their ninth game in a row so the Mets fell 2 games back in the National League East. But the Reds also lost, so the Mets’ three-game lead in the wild-card race remained intact.
Dennis Cook took the loss and fell to 10-4. He allowed one of the runners he inherited from Orel Hershiser to score to tie the game in the sixth, then Cook gave up the go-ahead run in the seventh on Jay Bell’s RBI double.
Then in the eighth, Pat Mahomes gave up a leadoff home run to Matt Williams to make it 5-3 Diamondbacks. Matt Mantei closed it out with a 1-2-3 ninth for his 24th save.
The game featured a pitching matchup between a pair of savvy right-handers in Hershiser and former Met Armando Reynoso, who improved to 10-2. Reynoso allowed just one earned run on six hits, while Hershiser gave up three in 52/3 innings.
Hershiser was essentially brought in to fill the void left when the Mets decided to let Reynoso go. Although Reynoso had good success in his two years in New York, the Mets were concerned about his 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 deal with Arizona, and the Mets never even made an offer.
“He’s a terrific pitcher,” Bobby Valentine said the other day. “From our side of the coin the only question was, was he physically capable of holding up?”
Hershiser and Reynoso are very similar in the way they pitch, and they’re probably the same age, too. Hershiser will be 41 in three weeks and Reynoso is listed as 33, but he looks a bit older and pitches like a veteran of 20 years.
They both use off-speed pitches a lot, but aren’t what you’d call junkballers 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.
Both starters held their opponents scoreless through three – and hitless in Hershiser’s case – until the Mets broke through in the fourth inning. It started when Reynoso walked Mike Piazza, who went to second on a balk.
From there he went to third on Robin Ventura’s groundout to first, but froze there on Darryl Hamilton’s grounder to second, failing to score. It turned out not to be an issue because Roger Cedeno brought him home with a single to right, his first RBI on the night.
The Diamondbacks came back immediately after Tony Womack walked in the bottom of the fourth . He stole second for his 59th stolen base of the year, surpassing Cedeno for the major league lead in thefts. Bell followed with the Diamondbacks’ first hit of the game, a solid single to center that scored Womack to tie the game. Hershiser got out of the inning, but the end was near for him.
The Mets took back the lead in the sixth with a pair of unearned runs off Reynoso thanks to Bell’s error on John Olerud’s grounder. Ventura knocked in Olerud from third on a double to right and scored from third himself on Cedeno’s single to center that gave the Mets a 3-1 lead.
Short-lived, it was, though. The Diamondbacks knocked in two runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth and also knocked Hershiser out of the game.
Erubiel Durazo singled up the middle to score Bell and that was it for Hershiser. Cook came in and broke Steve Finley’s bat, but the ball eluded him and all Cook could do was flip his glove at it. Everyone was safe and Luis Gonzalez scored.
Cook, who was struggling all night because he was constantly falling behind hitters, gave up the go-ahead run in the seventh as Womack burned around the bases and scored on Bell’s double to left. Henderson gave chase to Bell’s ball but could not catch it and couldn’t even get to it on the bounce as it scooted past his flailing glove and went all the way to the wall.
