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BASEBALL | DIAMONDBACKS 2, METS 1; METS 4, DIAMONDBACKS 2

Banner Day Is Far From It as Mets SplitDoubleheader

By TIM ROHAN MAY 25, 2014

Somber and quiet and shaking their heads, hordes of fans filed out of Citi

Field and trudged toward the subway station. The second game of the

day’s single-admission doubleheader was about to start, but they had

better plans for the rest of their Sunday afternoon. The Mets had found a

new way to lose, and their fans had seen enough.

In the ninth, with the score tied, Daniel Murphy failed to catch a

throw from David Wright that would have ended the inning. Instead, the

decisive run scored. And in the bottom half of the inning, Murphy made

the game’s last out, with the tying run on second base.

The Mets had lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2-1, in a way that

was so draining, not many people stuck around to watch the Mets win the

second game, 4-2.

A rainout on Friday had forced the Mets and the Diamondbacks to

schedule an old-school, single-admission doubleheader for Sunday.

Optimism was running high, with Sunday the Mets’ annual Banner Day.

Fans paraded around the warning track with handmade signs. Years ago,

they might have joked about the payroll or asked for a new shortstop, but

since the Mets brought back the event in 2012, the signs have been much

tamer.

One simply read, “Believe!”

It seemed fitting that Rafael Montero, one of the Mets’ top pitching

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prospects and a player they hope to build around, was starting the first

game. And in some way, the way he pitched encapsulated the current state

of the Mets: He showed signs of talent and potential but also his

inexperience and youth.

He allowed a first inning solo home run by Chris Owings but

responded by striking out Paul Goldschmidt and Miguel Montero. He

allowed only one more hit and compiled 10 strikeouts. But he labored

against the lowly Diamondbacks, and his pitch count ballooned. After six

innings and 113 pitches, his day was done.

This was still, by far, the best of Montero’s first three major league

starts. The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Yankees had both beaten him,

taking some of the shine off his arrival. Since then, though, Mets Manager

Terry Collins had urged Montero to be more confident in his stuff, and he

had sharpened his mechanics.

“Yes, of course, this was my best,” Montero said through an

interpreter, “and there is better to come — thank God.”

Despite his effort, Montero received no decision because Bronson

Arroyo had equally dominated the Mets. Their best chance came and went

in the first inning. After their first three batters singled, scoring a run,

Arroyo retired the next three batters in order — Curtis Granderson, Chris

Young and Lucas Duda.

Over the next three innings, as Juan Lagares, Young and Juan

Centeno each grounded into inning-ending double plays, the fans’

optimism and any excitement Montero had added seemed to vanish.

The fans booed Young as he grounded into another double play in the

sixth inning. They booed Oliver Perez, a former Mets reliever who pitched

a scoreless seventh for Arizona. They booed Duda when, with the score tied

and the bases loaded in the eighth, he grounded into a double play, the

Mets’ fifth, which tied a franchise record for a nine-inning game.

The crowd gasped and then groaned as the Mets slowly collapsed in

the ninth.

The Diamondbacks rallied against Jenrry Mejia. Murphy dropped the

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throw from Wright and then flied out to left field, stranding two base

runners. The Mets had reached base 16 times and produced only one run.

Young and Duda in particular struggled, each stranding six runners. For

Duda, that continued a tough stretch: On Saturday, he went 0 for 4, with

seven runners left on base.

Collins benched both Duda and Young for the second game, but the

Mets’ win was mostly a testament to Daisuke Matsuzaka, who held the

Diamondbacks to two runs in six innings in a spot start. He even drove in a

run with a single in the second inning.

The rest of the Mets’ batters reached base 17 times and produced only

three runs, which was a marginal improvement but still hard to watch.

When the final out was recorded, about seven hours after the first game

started, the fans that had stayed wearily applauded.

Then they, too, started to trudge home.

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