It's Not Easy Being Green: Andy Sees Mets' Losing Streak Continue

Phillies 2, Mets 1 (Citi Field, Flushing, NY)

Mets Record: 34-48

Mets Streak: L7

Mets Last 10: 2-8

WP: Zack Wheeler (8-1)

LP: Huascar Brazoban (4-2)

S: Jhoan Duran (20)

Seat On The Korner: Zack Wheeler

We select a Star of the Game and virtually invite him to take his Seat on the Korner — just as Ralph Kiner did on WOR-TV Channel 9 during the early days of the New York Mets.

Continuing the tradition of Rheingold Beer sponsoring Kiner’s Korner, this season every seat is proudly presented by The Main Event Restaurant & Sports Bar.

With locations in Plainview and Farmingdale, The Main Event features 80+ HD TVs, fresh daily seafood, and Black Angus certified steaks—so you never have to choose between great food and the big game.

In a pitchers' battle, you almost have to give the seat to the winning pitcher, and Zack Wheeler certainly is deserving of the seat after this game: seven innings, four hits, five strikeouts and only one run -- Jared Young singling in Bo Bichette, who had doubled. Mets fans groan every time Wheeler takes the mound against them, reminding them of how his career has blossomed after he left Flushing for greener pastures. The cherry on the cake for Wheeler: picking off A.J. Ewing twice.

Need To Know:

• The loss was the Mets' seventh in a row, and the first under interim manager Andy Green

• The Mets are now 9-11 against the NL East.

• Roster moves: Tyrone Taylor back from the IL. M.J. Melendez optioned to Syracuse. As reported yesterday, Daniel Duarte sent to Syracuse to make room for Zack Thornton.

• To replace Carlos Mendoza as manager, the Mets named someone whose lifetime batting average was....the Mendoza Line. Andy Green hit exactly .200 in 140 major league games, including four with the Mets in 2009, going 1-for-4.

• Semantics: the team's game notes don't say that Mendoza was fired. Instead, they called it a "departure."

• Phillies center fielder Derek Hill robbed Juan Soto of home run in the bottom of the first, leaping to snare the ball over the fence.

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• A.J. Ewing was picked off not one, but twice. The first time, in the second inning, Trea Turner was charged with an error as Bryce Harper couldn't handle his throw during the rundown. The second time, in the fourth, the Phillies didn't make any mistakes and Ewing was out.

• Pitching lineup for the rest of the series: Christian Scott comes off the IL to make the start Saturday, against Alan Rangel. Jesus Luzardo gets the ball for the Phils Sunday; the Mets haven't settled on a starter.

Turning Point:

Huascar Brazoban has been lights out for most of his appearances this season, but in tonight's game, he was a little off. Replacing Zach Thornton to start the seventh with the score tied at 1, Brazoban allowed an infield single to Derek Hill and walked Bryson Stott after a J.T. Realmuto groundout that had advanced Hill to second. Trea Turner then hit a solid single to left, scoring Hill for what was the game-winner.

Three Keys:

Fried Green Tomatoes

First, the good news: The Phillies did not embarrass the Mets, and while the Mets did commit one infield error (a throw by third baseman Brett Baty), the miscue didn't result in any Philadelphia runs. But now for the bad: the bats, which had been producing some runs while the team's pitchers were allowing buckets of them, essentially went silent. Francisco Lindor's single in the ninth snapped an 0-8 streak since coming off the IL, and Juan Soto, robbed of a home run in the first, looked like his back was hurting him in his subsequent at-bats. You can't win games if you only score one run, as the manager noted:

Green Acres

If the Mets had won the game, Jared Young would have gotten the Seat on the Korner, not so much because of his RBI single, but because of three stellar defensive plays that kept the game from getting out of hand, including an unassisted double play made when he dived to catch a screaming line drive and let his momentum carry his glove to the bag. We don't know what kind of lineup changes interim manager Andy Green plans to make, but first base has been wide open all year -- even when Jorge Polanco was healthy -- and Young, first with his hitting and now with his glove, is making a case to get most of the starts there. If there's one thing Wednesday's debacle proved, it is that you need strong infield defense to keep you in games. Mark Vientos does not give you that.

The Green Lantern

If somebody told you three batters into the game that Zach Thornton would last six innings for the Mets, you would have thought it was as likely as the moon being made of green cheese. But the green Thornton, in only his second major league start, survived three consecutive hard hits to open the game and allowed only two more after that. He struck out seven, walked only one (living up to his reputation as a control pitcher) and left after throwing only 78 pitches.

Thornton's performance was a beacon of light for beleaguered rotation, and, with David Peterson having left town a Chicago Cub, probably earned another start the next time this slot comes around.