The Mets get shutout in Atlanta

The New York Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves by a score of 1-0 on Saturday evening. R.A. Dickey started and pitched very well and Tim Byrdak only faced one batter and retired him. The offense didn’t do anything at all. Tim Hudson started for the Braves and completely dominated the Mets. He pitched eight innings giving up four hits and striking out ten. Ruben Tejada had a two hit game and Josh Thole had a hit and a walk. There were only two other players who had a hit each.
Dickey pitched 7 2/3 innings giving up three hits and one run. He did walk six batters though and struck out four. Byrdak faced one batter and retired him. Dickey lost the game and his record dropped to 8-13 on the season.

Jose Reyes had a walk, Lucas Duda had a hit, Thole had a hit and a walk and Tejada had two hits. The Mets did not have an extra base hit in the game. They were 0-5 with runners in scoring position and they left five men on base. The Mets offense had a really good day on Friday and in this game they went backwards. Hudson is a really good pitcher though and he looked like he used to in his younger days in this game.

The only run of the game was scored in the eighth inning. Chipper Jones had an RBI single. Jones has been a long time Mets killer. The single was after a walk, bunt and ground out moving him to third. It wasn’t even like they crushed Dickey in the inning to win the game. It was a weak rally but when your team doesn’t score any runs it makes it very difficult to win the game.

Dickey said “It sure is painful. I threw a good knuckleball to Chipper, and he did what a Hall of Famer does.” “I almost got it Dickey said. “I just couldn’t get my glove down on it. It was a really good knuckleball he hit.” Dickey came into the game with 10 straight quality starts in which he posted a 2.73 ERA. He was only 4-4 in those games. He was at his best in this game but he still didn’t have any good luck as he was a hard luck loser once again. The Mets record fell to 72-80 and they will play the rubber game of the three game series on Sunday afternoon. The Mets won the first game of the series on Friday night 12-2 and then lost this game 1-0. They will have an off day on Monday and then play three in St. Louis and then return home for their final homestand of the season and final six games of the season. The Mets would like to finish 500 but it will be really difficult now as they need to win 9 of their final 10 for that to happen.