Reeling Giants lose to Mets 3-0 | The Press Democrat

“He’s been pitching well lately and he had another tremendous outing”. “It’s been our strength, and the bullpen is struggling a little bit”. “That’s something that we’ve been so good at”.

The Mets hope they don’t repeat what happened last time they faced Chris Heston.

Johnny Monell snapped a scoreless tie against his ex- team with a two-run double off Romo in the ninth. The Mets were 0-7 last night with runners in scoring position before the hits by Monell and Lagares. The Mets notched their second shutout in a row on a West Coast trip that has been a pleasant surprise thus far. “So to get off to this start on this road trip is huge for us for sure”.

Juan Lagares later singled to drive in Monell. Starting pitcher Jon Niese allowed three hits and struck out four over 8.0 scoreless innings to get the win and go to 4-8 for the season and Jeurys Famillia earned his 23rd save. “The long ball’s been killing us”. The lefty cruised through the first four innings, allowing just one hit when Heston singled through the left side of the infield with two outs in the third. “They threw out good at-bats against our late-inning guys”.

About the only fair outcome was that Heston, who no-hit the Mets on June 9, didn’t take the loss himself Monday.

The Mets lineup was back to barely breathing a day after hammering the Dodgers for eight runs, but Niese matched the zeroes his offense was producing Monday with his own brand of filth.

The right-hander was pulled after hitting Lagares with a pitch and walking Ruben Tejada sandwiched around a forceout on a ball that fell amid three players in short left field. He threw 81 total pitches, only exiting when Collins lifted him for a pinch hitter during the Mets’ ninth-inning spurt.

“I wish I would have not walked so many people and just tightened the zone a little better”, Heston said. “But other than that I thought it went pretty well”.

San Francisco (42-42) only threatened once, loading the bases in the sixth, but Niese induced a routine groundout off the bat of All-Star catcher Buster Posey to escape the jam.

San Francisco Giants first baseman Joaquin Arias (13) hits a single in the sixth inning as the New York Mets face the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, July 6, 2015. Niese then struck out leadoff hitter Gregor Blanco, but issued back-to-back walks to Ehire Adrianza and Matt Duffy to load the bases. Heston retired Nieuwenhuis on a grounder to second to end that threat. “We had five runs the last series, we got shut out today. That is not going to work”.

Mets: Right-handed reliever Jenrry Mejia made his final rehab appearance Sunday and is expected to be activated in time for Tuesday night’s game. The right-hander was New York’s projected closer entering the season, but was given an 80-game suspension after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. The outfielder took batting practice for the second straight day and said he was feeling great.

Mets: RHP Bartolo Colon (9-6, 4.55 ERA) threw seven shutout innings in his last start.

Taking the hill for the Giants tonight will be Chris Heston, who is 8-5 with a 3.78 ERA overall, while at home he has gone 3-4 with a 3.12 ERA. He has not won in San Francisco in three years.

Matt Cain will be on the hill for tomorrow’s game two of this three game series against the Mets, making his second start since returning from the disabled list.