NEW YORK, NY – JUNE 24: Scott Kazmir #26 of the Oakland Athletics pitches in the first inning against the New York Mets at Citi Field on June 24, 2014 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)

 

By Kahlil Najar

NEW YORK – Scott Kazmir is allowed to have one bad game a year. This was it. In three innings Kazmir gave up eight hits and seven runs – of those eight hits, three went for home runs.

“I just wasn’t throwing my pitches where I wanted to at all,” said Kazmir. “Any change up was belt high or even higher, and they put good swings on them. They didn’t miss any of those pitches that were up in the zone. For the most part, everything was right down the middle.”

It seemed as though Kazmir wasn’t on his game tonight. Head Coach Bob Melvin echoed that sentiment, “It was a performance that we haven’t seen so for me it just looked like some balls were up in the zone and he wasn’t locating like he normally does.”

The three homers tonight were also a shock for Kazmir. Known for not giving up the deep ball, Kazmir gave up the home run ball to Curtis Granderson, former Athletic Chris Young and Travis d’Arnaud.

“It’s almost a shock when you see him give up home runs,” said Melvin. “He got some balls up, missed location with a few of them, and they didn’t miss them. The wind was blowing out to left, and they got some in the air out there, took advantage of it.

The only highlight of the night for the A’s was when Yoenis Cespedes hit his 20th double of the year and scored Brandon Moss in the first inning.

The Mets started former Athletic starting pitcher Bartolo Colon who earned his eighth win of the year as he went 8 strong innings and struck out 8 on 112 pitches.

When asked about Colon, catcher Stephen Vogt said, “What he did tonight is what he did for us all of last year. He’s so frustrating to play, especially someone who has caught him and knows him well. He threw me three sliders in one at-bat. I don’t think I’ve seen him throw three offspeed pitches to anyone. That’s just what he does. Just when you think you’ve got him figured out, he’s going to throw you something you have no idea about. That’s just a testament to how good he is.”

The A’s hope to turn it around tomorrow when Brad Mills (0-0, 4.50 ERA) takes on the Mets Zack Wheeler (3-7, 3.93 ERA), game time 4:10pm PST.