New York Mets vs. Atlanta Braves – Box Score – September 16, 2009 – ESPN

If I were a Mets blogger — well, I’d kill myself, but assuming that somehow I had friends and family and they managed to restrain me — I’d be pretty upset right about now, 22 games out or not. The Mets had sixteen hits but only scored five runs, leaving fourteen men on base, and their closer blew the save in the ninth before losing the game when a ball hit Daniel Murphy, caromed straight up in the air, and Murphy dropped it, allowing the winning run to score from second on a ball that went sixty feet. That’s the sort of thing you’d expect from the sort of organization that would trade for Jeff Francoeur.

Derek Lowe had another one of those games where he had blisters on his fingers and gave up five hits, two walks, and three runs, two of them “earned”, in two innings. The defense didn’t help — McCann was charged with an error for batter interference, and runners advanced on a pointless throw home — but he still was pretty terrible. Three more years of this!

The Braves rallied back with a run in the bottom of the second, and tied it with two in the third. They took the lead on a passed ball in the fourth, but Kawakami gave it right back with a double to Jeffy (ugh) followed by a single, and then both teams went into Hibernation Mode until the eighth. Bobby, having used Medlen, Kawakami, and Moylan, went to Gonzalez, who pitched with a five-run lead yesterday and wasn’t all that effective. Predictably, his arm fell off. Sorry, no, he gave up a solo homer to the legendary Omir (.398 SLG) Santos and then left the game with a “stiff back”. Acosta came in and immediately loaded the bases. Somehow, he didn’t allow a run. I’m not sure that he didn’t and that they just forgot to record it.

Anyway, O’Flaherty pitched the ninth, and picked up a win due to yet another Mets implosion. ACHE doubled to lead off, and Gorecki ran for him. McCann started another one of those plate appearances, but after several 2-2 pitches Rodriguez hit him. (At the time, it looked like it might have been a lucky break for the Mets, because the ball just brushed him on its way to the wall, and the HBP kept Gorecki from going to third.) Speed Demon David Ross ran for McCann (they still had Diaz or Jurrjens to run, but whatever) and then Yunel laid down a beautiful bunt that got past the mound and almost got him to first, but he was out by a step. The Mets, being the Mets, walked LaRoche to load the bases to pitch to Infante, who was 2-4 with a double at that point. He hit a sac fly to score Gorecki and tie the game. Church hit what looked like a foul ball down the line, but it pushed fair and hit off Murphy, who then couldn’t handle the carom, scoring the Speed Demon from second. Arguably, it should have been two errors, one for the original misplay and one for the drop.