The New York Mets offense put up a familiar performance on Wednesday night in a 2-0 loss to the San Francisco Giants, but this time they had a good reason: they were facing Tim Lincecum. The Giants ace struck out 12 over seven innings, including the final five batters he faced.
Making matters worse, it was old friend Pat Burrell that knocked in the game-winning run on a single in the sixth inning. Burrell is only hitting .230 this season, but for his career his has 42 home runs and 106 RBI against the Mets, the most off any opponent.
Mike Fontenot accounted for the other Giants run with a single off of losing pitcher Chris Capuano in the seventh inning. The Mets starter pitched well over 6 and 1/3 innings, but was abandoned by his offense.
New York had a shot to break through against Lincecum in the seventh. Carlos Beltran led off with a double, but was unable to score on Ike Davis' single when he had to wait to see if the ball would be caught on the line. He then had to stay at third when second baseman Freddy Sanchez made an incredible play on a Ronny Paulino's pop fly near the right field line. Sanchez slid to catch the ball, while narrowly avoiding a collision with RF Nate Shierholtz, popped up and threw a perfect strike to home. Willie Harris and Jason Pridie struck out weakly to end the threat.
The Mets struck out a season-high 16 times and continued to struggle with runners in scoring position (one-for-nine).
When Lincecum called it a night after seven innings and a 127 pitches, the San Francisco bullpen sent the Mets quietly into the night, including a perfect ninth by Brian Wilson for his 10th save.
The Giants have now won two in a row after coming to Citi Field having lost eight of 11. Meanwhile, the Mets have lost four of five following a season-high six game winning streak.
Mike Pelfrey will try to prevent a three game sweep Thursday afternoon when these two teams wrap up their series. The Giants will counter with Jonathan Sanchez.