NEW YORK -- Streaky Curtis Granderson is on a tear at the plate for the New York Mets. He contributed his 250th career homer in Saturday's game against the Cincinnati Reds, which ultimately was suspended entering the seventh inning with the score tied at 1. He extended his hitting streak to seven games, during which he is hitting .458 (11-for-24). And he has homered five times in seven games.
Still, two plays Granderson failed to come through on Saturday proved costly to the Mets.
Granderon flat-out dropped Tucker Barnhart's fifth-inning fly ball to right field, which generously was ruled a double. Barnhart ultimately scored the only run Matt Harvey surrendered in six innings.
Then, immediately before the game was halted, Granderson flied out against left-hander Manny Parra to end the sixth, leaving the bases loaded. Had Granderson driven in a run, the Mets likely would have prevailed in a rain-shortened game.
Granderson said he "definitely should have" made the catch on Barnhart's fly ball.
"It hit me in the palm of the glove," he said. "I thought I had it. It ended up bouncing out for whatever reason. Unfortunately I wasn't able to haul it in."
Meanwhile, Granderson said he did not change his approach at the plate in the sixth, despite the steady rain suggesting the game would be stopped soon thereafter.
"Not at all, because you're still up there against a tough left-hander, and you're trying to get a pitch you can handle," Granderson said. "It's still two outs, so you still need to get some things to go your way. He gave me a pitch to hit there at the end. I just wasn't able to get it to fall. ... You put a good swing on the ball, that's all you can do. After that, you hope that it gets a little bit of grass or it gets away from some guys to allow some things to happen. But on that particular one it didn't."
