Jon Niese had only himself to blame — himself and the ineptitude of the Mets’ offense. Or was it the sudden brilliance of Ryan Vogelsong?
It was awfully hard to tell.
The pitcher, who came into the game having lost his previous five decisions, limited the Mets to two hits, none until the sixth inning, as the Giants won, 5-1 Friday night at Citi Field.
Juan Lagares’ leadoff single in the sixth gave the Mets just their second base runner. But they ran themselves out of the inning when Lagares, who had moved to second on a groundout, was doubled off on a line drive to first by Niese.
That was the least of Niese’s problems, however.
In the second, the left-hander helped the Giants to a pair of unearned runs by throwing away a routine comebacker.
With Juan Perez on second after a leadoff double, Niese fielded Gregor Blanco’s bouncer back to the mound cleanly. But his throw to second to get Perez, who had wandered into no-man’s land, bounced well in front of shortstop Ruben Tejada, striking him in the chest, and everyone was safe.
Brandon Crawford followed with an RBI single and, one batter later, Hunter Pence’s RBI groundout made it 2-0.
“[Niese] gets out of that inning with a good throw,” Mets manager Terry Collins said.
“I made a mistake there,” said Niese, who added he also blundered on Pence’s two-run triple in the seventh. “And in this league you can’t make those mistakes, especially when the opposing pitcher is pitching like [Vogelsong] was.”
The game took just 2 hours 6 minutes, the second shortest game in the majors this season. As the saying goes, if you can’t be good, be quick.
The Mets obliged, as did the Giants, who came out swinging. Niese threw just 87 pitches while pitching into the ninth for the first time all season. He retired the Giants on just six pitches in the third inning, on seven in the fifth and on eight in the eighth.
“He pitched great,” David Wright said. “He showed early on he was just going to pound the strike zone and make them beat him. He kind of beat himself with that [error] and we ran into a buzz saw in Vogelsong.”
The right-hander, who pitched the first nine-inning complete game of his career, won for the first time since June 21.
“We hadn’t faced him in a few years,” said Wright, who went 0-for-3. “We were both with Team USA in the World Baseball Classic and I remember being impressed with his command in and out. He cuts it, sinks it. He’s got the curveball, the changeup, and he was throwing all four for strikes.”
“That’s what he did tonight.”
After the Mets showed the faintest of pulses in the sixth, the Giants scored three times in the seventh. Lucas Duda’s 20th homer of the season, leading off the eighth, accounted for the only Mets run.
Niese (5-7) lost his third consecutive start since returning from the disabled list with a strained shoulder.
“When they did any damage he just didn’t make the pitch he wanted to make,” Collins said. “Otherwise, I thought he threw the ball good. … You’re always going to hang something or make a bad pitch. Tonight, I thought they did damage when he made a mistake.”