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Chase Utley hitting a sacrifice fly in the first inning as the Phillies took an early lead against R. A. Dickey and the Mets at Citi Field.
The Mets this week returned to Citi Field, where they will have roughly a week and a half to leave some sort of lasting positive impression upon their home fans before the offseason.
It may be a losing battle. After falling, 3-1, to the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night, the Mets have now lost seven straight games at Citi Field and have not scored more than three runs at home since Aug. 12. At 66-81, they are almost certain not to finish the season at .500 — once a tangible, if optimistic, goal — and they will need a surge to match their win total from last year, 77.
During this 10-game homestand, then, individual achievements will take center stage. For instance, David Wright finished the day with 1,412 hits, just 6 shy of Ed Kranepool for the franchise record. Then, of course, there was R. A. Dickey, whose candidacy for the National League Cy Young Award has become one of the team's primary concerns.
Monday's game could, in a way, be observed through the lens of the award campaign.
Dickey opened the game by fanning Jimmy Rollins, the first of 8 strikeouts he recorded on the night. He brought his season total to 205, second in the National League behind Clayton Kershaw, another Cy Young competitor. Dickey also became just the 10th player in Mets history and the first since Johan Santana in 2008 to strike out 200 batters in a season.
But catcher Mike Nickeas dropped the ball that Rollins whiffed at, letting him scamper to first. When Rollins later came around to score, Dickey's chance to get his 19th victory was damaged. But on the plus side for Dickey, that run was unearned, so his gleaming earned run average was not sullied.
It was easy to interpret the rest of the action this way, and it should be for the rest of the season, too. Manager Terry Collins said before the game that Dickey's quest for the award brought a "good atmosphere" around the team. He added, "When your season has had such a drastic turn like ours has, it still give us some energy to go out and play with."
The drastic turn has been reflected in the stands, as the organization appears on track to experience its third consecutive season of declining attendance. Through 71 home games, the Mets drew 68,374 fewer fans than they did through the same number of games last season. The team drew just 20,527 fans on Monday, though Rosh Hashana may have affected the figure. And the team's final three opponents at home, the Phillies, the Miami Marlins and the Pittsburgh Pirates, are not hugely alluring.
Still, the Mets have tried various tactics to bring more people to Citi Field. Tickets to Dickey's final starts at home were sold as a discounted package, and all September, fans with a regular ticket are being offered free tickets for children under 12.
One thing the Mets have not offered is winning baseball. In the fifth, Rollins lofted a ball to right field that bounced near the top of the wall and, after a video review, was ruled a home run. And in the seventh, Domonic Brown belted a solo home run to right. Those runs did count against Dickey's E.R.A., which came to rest at 2.67 by the time he was done.
The Mets scored their only run in the fifth, when Daniel Murphy floated a run-scoring single off Cliff Lee, who dominated over eight innings, striking out 10. But Lee has just six wins this year: no threat for the Cy Young Award, so no worry for the Mets.
INSIDE PITCH
The Mets announced a two-year player development contract with the Las Vegas 51s, who will replace the Buffalo Bisons as the organization's Class AAA affiliate.
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG and SANGAR RAHIMI 18 Sep, 2012
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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/sports/baseball/dickey-fails-in-bid-for-19-wins-as-mets-lose-to-phillies.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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