Normally when a pitcher throws a complete game on the road, it means they won. However, Mets fans know better than to think they are anything close to normal.
One night after the Mets continued the downward spiral of humanity by celebrating a game they didn’t deserve to win, Karma reared her ugly head and forced some the Mets’ own medicine down their throat.
Dillon Gee had perhaps his best outing as a New York Met tonight against the Atlanta Braves. After a four hour rain delay, Gee pitched 8 scoreless innings to give the Mets a chance to upset the first-place Braves.
Not only was Gee dealing, but he also singled in John Buck for the Mets’ only run.
Gee was due to bat in the top half of the 9th, forcing Terry Collins to do something he doesn’t do very well — make a decision. Collins stuck with Gee and let him strike out to end the first half of the inning. Can’t knock Collins for rewarding a guy who had allowed just three hits and one walk over 8 innings to one of the best offenses in baseball.
Gee had to face the heart of the Braves stacked lineup. Jason Heyward, Justin Upton, and Freddie Freeman. Freeman, who is quietly one of the best players in the world, was the only Brave to look good all night — collecting two hits already.
After retiring Heyward, Gee let up a single to the younger Upton. Collins didn’t flinch and left closer Bobby Parnell in the bullpen to let Gee face Freeman and go for the first full complete game in his career (he pitched a six-inning, rain-shortened complete game in Chicago).
Then this happened:
It is hard not to feel awful for Gee, who has been an absolute trooper for the miserable Mets. He pitched brilliantly against a superior opponent, he drove in the Mets only run, and he collected his second, incomplete-complete game going eight and a third and getting dealt a soul eating loss.
About Michael Leboff