Those Mets

METS MAKE BIG DEAL & BEAT ASTROS

On a day when the Mets grappled with the loss of closer Francisco Rodriguez to injury, the team’s management also had an eye on the future, agreeing to terms with their first-round pick just before the deadline expired at midnight Monday. The Mets had signed 10 of their top 12 draft picks. But negotiations with Matt Harvey, the pitcher from North Carolina drafted seventh over all, went down to the wire, as did the Mets’ 3-1 victory against the Houston Astros on Monday night. Despite their woes this season, the Mets managed a rare win in a first game of a trip, thanks to fine pitching by Jon Niese and Hisanori Takahashi, who stepped into the closer’s role vacated by Rodriguez and earned his first save of the season. They also got key hits from David Wright, Carlos Beltran and Jeff Francoeur, who have all slumped mightily since the All-Star break. “We haven’t scored many times against other teams’ closers tied on the road,” said Francouer, who tripled in Beltran in the ninth inning. “This is the kind of the game we’ve usually lost on the road, and to win the way we did was nice.” The game was a respite from the gloom that has enveloped the club the past two months. The team’s chances of making the playoffs are slim, but they have assembled a promising core of young players, including Niese, first baseman Ike Davis and catcher Josh Thole. They can now add Harvey to the list after signing him to a deal reportedly worth more than $2 million. Failing to reach an agreement with their highest draft pick would have embarrassed the Mets, who have been reluctant to sign big-name free agents or engineer significant trades, and have instead promoted their young (and less expensive) prospects as the future of the franchise. The Mets’ roster is saddled with several unproductive players, including Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo, who are owed tens of millions of dollars in the coming years and have made it hard for Mets management to find new talent. Unfortunately, the team’s biggest stars like Jason Bay and Beltran have floundered. Since July 1, the Mets have been last in the majors in batting average and on-base percentage, and next to last in slugging percentage. They have scored three or fewer runs in 11 of their 14 games this month. Their seven-game trip that began Monday to Houston and Pittsburgh, two stops with more hitter-friendly ballparks, seemed just what the Mets’ offense needed. Yet the game felt much like so many others in recent weeks. The Mets again received sturdy starting pitching from Niese, who gave up one run and seven hits in seven innings. But again, the Mets struggled to string together hits for much of the game. Astros starter Wandy Rodriguez gave up a solo home run to Beltran in the fourth inning, but erased other runners by inducing double-play ground balls. After escaping a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the eighth, the Mets finally responded in the top of the ninth. Wright and Beltran singled, and with Jeff Francoeur at bat, Wright scored on a wild pitch. Francoeur drove in Beltran. With Rodriguez suddenly gone, Manager Jerry Manuel turned to Takahashi to close the game. Unlike the histrionics around Rodriguez, though, Takahashi quietly pitched an unblemished ninth inning. (NY Times)