Mets Lose An Ugly One in Milwaukee 8-6, Lose Series

Well, after last night's ugly 8-6 loss (box score/wrap up) to the Brewers the Mets find themselves battling today to not get swept. 

Last night Fernando Nieve was given an ill-advised spot start and he did nothing to show he should be given another. Nieve was hit early and often last night, going only 2 innings and giving up 5 runs, including a grand slam to Cory Hart, who at one point between Friday and Saturday had homered in 3 consecutive at bats against the Mets.  Due to Nieve's poor performance, and a bases loaded situation for the Mets in the top of the third (which I will address in a second), Nieve was lifted in favor of Oliver Perez who didn't perform much better giving up three runs in two innings himself.  Overall it was a bad night for the Mets on the hill, which I guess is tolerable considering how well they had been pitching prior to last night...BUT...I still have beef with a few of Jerry's decisions last night starting with his decision to start Nieve...

But the biggest issue I had last night was the situation with bases loaded in the third inning.  After Jeff Francoeur was intentionally walked with first base open and two outs (WHY MACHA?  WHY?), Jerry had no choice but to lift Nieve for a pinch-hitter, which he probably was going to do anyway.  But in the grand tradition of Jerry loving righty-lefty match ups, he decided to pinch hit Matthews Jr (because of his switch-hitting [in]abilities) in an effort to counter any pitching change Macha could have made.  And there-in lies my problem... 

I get that it's the third inning and there's a chance that you'll need a "better" pinch hitter later in a clutch spot, BUT YOU CANNOT ASSUME THAT WILL HAPPEN.  Any opportunity you have to score runs needs to be taken, not taken for granted.  There was no guarantee the Mets were going to be in a good position later in the game, and that's why Jerry should have hit ANYONE better than Matthews.  Chris Carter can hit lefties and righties, so why not send him up there?...Or even Tatis would have been a better decision.

On the bright side, Francoeur, Reyes, Pagan and Bay all had multi-hit games and Davis homered, which at the time brought the Mets back into the game.  Outside of that, last night was a night to forget.

R.A. Dickey tries to help turn things around for the Mets on the road tonight against Randy Wolf and the Brewers at 2:10 on SNY...