Quiet Riot: Mets Suffer Silently On and Off the Field

Rockies win 2-1 and Chris Young is gone for the season.

There have been plenty of loud Mets losses over the last few years.

Games where players made dreadful errors in the field or on the basepaths run together with tinderbox pitching performances and strikeouts with the game on the line. Sound and fury also signified moving in the wrong direction off the field in those sad seasons.

There was the Tony Bernazard foolishness, bizarre Omar Minaya kabuki theatre masquerading as press conferences and the decision to fly Willie Randolph across the country before firing him in California. Even season ending injuries happened in explosive fashion with Francisco Rodriguez's family room fight standing out as the most memorable of moments.

Monday night's 2-1 loss to the Rockies was nothing like those past indignities. It was the kind of game that begged the question, "If no one was watching this contest take place, would it make a sound?"

That kind of philosophical musing is necessary after watching Rockies startier Jhoulys Chacin throw just 55 strikes on 107 pitches while walking six batters. It's the kind of night that should lead to several bouts of run scoring but you need to get hits with runners in scoring position for such things.

The Mets couldn't convert on any of those chances, scoring their only run when Jason Bay reached first base on an error. That made a very hard luck loser out of Chris Capuano, especially since he also struck out with the bases loaded after Josh Thole passed the buck to him with two outs and two on in the sixth inning.

It's hard to get too upset about watching a player work a walk from a pitcher giving them away, but if ever there was a moment to get a little loud that was it. Thole shrunk from the moment and it passed without incident, sort of like the entire game.

Quiet pain was the story of the entire day. Chris Young's brief, fruitful Mets career is over after learning that he tore the anterior capsule in his right shoulder for the second straight season.

Young didn't hurt his shoulder in any big dramatic fashion. He felt a little off during a bullpen session, got an MRI and found out something horrible had happened to him all over again.

At least he was in the big leagues. Jennry Mejia, a beacon of hope for the pitching staff, couldn't even make it to Queens before finding out he needs Tommy John surgery that puts his savior status into some serious doubt.

The quiet losses might be less embarrassing, but we learned Monday that they're just as painful.

Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.

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