April 13, 2009: Citi Field Debut
From The Met Wiki
| Date: April 13, 2009 |
| Mets starter: Mike Pelfrey |
| Mets: 5 |
| Padres: 6 |
| Winning pitcher: Edward Mujica |
| Key player(s): David Wright, Jody Gerut |
| Key play: Church's error, Feliciano's balk |
The Mets opened brand new Citi Field on a Monday night in New York. During the pre-game festivities, Tom Seaver threw a perfect strike to Mike Piazza in the traditional first pitch ceremony. As for the game, the Mets came up short as they lost to the Padres, 6-5.
San Diego's Jody Gerut christened the new stadium with a leadoff home run in the first inning against Mets' starter Mike Pelfrey. In the second, the Padres scored three more times on run-producing doubles by Gerut and David Eckstein. The Mets then scored their first Citi Field run when Luis Castillo doubled off the Padres' Walter Silva to score Brian Schneider in the bottom of the second.
The Padres increased their lead to 5-1 on Adrian Gonzalez's home run off Pelfrey in the top of the fifth. In the bottom of the inning, Daniel Murphy got a two-out single off Silva to score Gary Sheffield from second base and move Jose Reyes from first to third. David Wright followed with the Mets' first home run at Citi Field to tie the game, 5-5. Silva was then replaced by San Diego reliever Edward Mujica.
In the sixth, Luis Rodriguez led off against Mets' reliever Brian Stokes. Rodriguez got all the way to third base when Ryan Church dropped his fly ball to right field. Stokes then recorded an out and was relieved by Pedro Feliciano. With Gerut at the plate, Feliciano committed a balk to bring home Rodriguez and put San Diego in front. The Mets loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning, but did not score against Padres' reliever Edwin Moreno.
Three Met relievers held the Padres hitless from the seventh inning to the ninth. Heath Bell took the mound in the last half of the ninth for San Diego. Bell retired the Mets in order, ending the game. The Mets went down to defeat in the Citi Field inaugural.
