Ike Davis belts three solo homers, but Mets fall to Diamondbacks, 6-3
Ike Davis hits his third home run of the game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. (July 28, 2012) Credit: AP
PHOENIX -- Ike Davis hit three home runs Saturday night and the Mets still lost.
Davis, who grew up in nearby Scottsdale, hit three solo shots off former Yankee Ian Kennedy in his first three at-bats as the Mets fell to the Diamondbacks, 6-3, at Chase Field.
The first two home runs were moon shots to deep center and the third was a line drive into the Mets' bullpen in right. Davis (4-for-4) had a single in his fourth at-bat.
Davis' homers traveled an estimated 435, 445 and 394 feet, according to ESPN Stats and Info.
But Chris Young gave up six runs in four innings and the Mets dropped their second in a row and 14th in 16 games.
"It's bittersweet, for sure," Davis said. "It's always good to feel good at the plate, but the ultimate goal is to win the game, and we didn't. Take it as a positive moving forward, but obviously, you'd like to win."
Davis had many of his childhood friends in attendance as Saturday night was an annual fund-raiser at the ballpark for cancer research in honor of Mike Lio, a high school teammate of Davis who died in 2009 at age 22.
"Tremendous night for Ike," manager Terry Collins said. "Huge night for him in honor of his friend. We didn't give him any help."
Davis raised his batting average to .216. He leads the team with a career-high 20 home runs and has 60 RBIs, second to David Wright's 70.
Davis became the ninth Met to homer three times in a game. The last was Carlos Beltran on May 12, 2011, at Coors Field. The Mets won that game, 9-5.
The others are Jose Reyes, Edgardo Alfonzo, Gary Carter, Darryl Strawberry, Claudell Washington, Dave Kingman and Jim Hickman. No Met has ever hit four.
Davis had a chance to do that in the eighth inning, but he lined a single to right off reliever David Hernandez as the crowd of 33,759 buzzed and some chanted "Let's go, Mets!"
Davis was on deck in the ninth inning, but Wright struck out swinging to end the game, the Mets' 15th K of the night.
"Fifteen strikeouts," Collins said. "We had plenty of chances with guys on base to add on and we couldn't do it."
Davis also homered in his first at-bat Friday in the Mets' 11-5 loss to the Diamondbacks. He has four in his last two games and six in his last six. But the power surge has not contributed to a Mets win; their only victory in that span came in Matt Harvey's debut Thursday, when Davis went 0-for-4.
Saturday night, leading off the second inning, Davis connected on a 3-and-1 pitch and sent a drive off the black batter's eye in dead center to make the score 1-1.
Arizona led 3-1 in the fourth when Davis homered on the 11th pitch of the at-bat, sending another drive to center to bring the Mets within a run.
In his third at-bat in the sixth inning, Davis fell behind 0-and-2 before taking two balls to even the count. The next pitch was a curve and Davis lined it into the Mets' bullpen in the rightfield corner for his third home run of the night, cutting Arizona's lead to 6-3.
Young (2-5) allowed one in the first, two in the second and three in the fourth as the D-backs took a 6-2 lead. Miguel Montero hit a two-run homer in the fourth and Gerardo Parra had a pair of RBI singles.
Kennedy (9-8) went 61/3 innings and allowed three runs and seven hits.
Davis' single in the eighth gave the Mets two runners on and none out. But Daniel Murphy's 400-foot drive to center was hauled in by Parra and Hernandez struck out Jason Bay and Kirk Nieuwenhuis. Bay (.164) went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and is hitless in his last 19 at-bats.
In the ninth, J.J. Putz struck out potential tying runs Scott Hairston and Wright to end it with Davis in the on-deck circle.
