The Mets fight back but lose to the Dodgers on a damp dreary night

The New York Mets were defeated by the Los Angeles Dodgers by the score of 7-6 on Friday night. The game took place at Citi Field in Flushing, New York. Johan Santana started for the Mets and was awful. He hasn’t been the same since throwing his no hitter. The Mets bullpen pitched well and Jordany Valdespin had a good game coming off the bench. Aaron Harang pitched pretty well for the Dodgers and their bullpen wasn’t great in the middle but it was at the end. Matt Kemp as usual led their offense. 
Santana saw his record drop to 6-7 as he pitched three innings giving up seven hits and six runs. He walked three and struck out three. Pedro Beato pitched two perfect innings with a strikeout, Ramon Ramirez pitched two innings giving up two hits and a run with a walk and three strikeouts and Tim Byrdak pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout. Jon Rauch pitched an inning giving up a hit and striking out two. Harang earned his seventh win of the season. He pitched five innings giving up four hits and three runs with one of them being earned. He walked three and struck out five, Josh Lindblom pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up a hit and a run with two walks. He struck out one, Shawn Tolleson pitched an inning giving up two hits and two runs with a strikeout, Javy Guerra pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit and striking out one and Ronald Belisario pitched an inning giving up a hit and striking out one. Kenley Jansen saved his 17^th game of the season pitching an inning giving up a hit and striking out two batters.

Ruben Tejada had a hit, Daniel Murphy had four hits and an RBI and David Wright had an RBI and drew a walk. Ike Davis had a hit and an RBI, Lucas Duda drew a walk and Valdespin had two hits and two RBI. Jason Bay had a hit and drew a walk, Andres Torres drew a walk and Josh Thole drew a walk. Scott Hairston had a hit and an RBI, Murphy hit two doubles and Valdespin hit a homerun. The Mets were 1-9 with runners in scoring position and they left ten men on base.

Bobby Abreu had a hit and drew a walk, Mark Ellis had a hit and Kemp had two hits, two RBI and drew a walk. Andre Ethier had a hit, an RBI and drew two walks, Juan Rivera had a hit and an RBI and Jerry Hairston Jr. had two hits and an RBI. Luis Cruz had a hit and two RBI and Tony Gwynn Jr. had a hit. Ethier and Gwynn each hit a double, Kemp and Cruz each hit a homerun. The Dodgers were 2-8 with runners in scoring position and they left seven men on base. Gwynn and Ethier each had a stolen base and Hairston committed an error.

In the first Kemp hit a two run homerun to give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. Hairston had an RBI single and it was 3-0 Dodgers. The Mets answered back with two runs in the bottom of the first. Wright and Davis each had a sacrifice fly. In the second Ethier walked and a run scored to make it 4-2 Dodgers. Cruz hit a two run homerun in the third and it was 6-2 Dodgers. In the fifth Murphy had an RBI double to cut the lead to 6-3. Hairston hit an RBI single in the sixth to make it a 6-4 game. The Dodgers scored their final run in the seventh on a Rivera RBI single to make it 7-4. The Mets would get a two run homerun from Valdespin in the seventh to make it 7-6 and that would be the final score.

The Mets record dropped to 47-46 on the season and the Dodgers improved their record to 50-44. The Mets and Dodgers will play the second of three on Saturday afternoon.