Performance Review: Gee was solid, but made one bad pitch

In yesterday's 4-2 loss to the Yankees, Dillon Gee allowed three runs on five hits with three walks and five strikeouts, but took his fourth loss of the season.

Gee's three walks all led off innings, one of which scored on a Mark Teixeira two-run home run in the sixth inning.

'I was having trouble staying warm between innings,' Gee said after the game. 'I couldn't get loose in every inning. I feel good, I'm not injured but I just couldn't get warm. It happens every now and then.'

Gee fell to 4-4 but improved his ERA to 4.42 for the season.

'I thought I battled out there today,' Gee said. 'I didn't feel very good. Obviously I thought I scrapped through seven innings.'

Over his last four starts, Gee has pitched to a 2.88 ERA.

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Michael Baron: Gee had a very fine outing last night, but when the margin for error is as thin as it's been recently, it's hard to play with fire like Gee did. Four of the first six lead-off men reached base, three via the walk. He got out of two of those jams by inducing two double play balls thanks to very good command of his tailing fastball, slider and change-up. But in the sixth inning, Gee issued a lead-off walk to Curtis Granderson, and he did not survive that one. Teixeira followed, and while Gee certainly had the right idea ' utilize off-speed pitches down in the strikezone ' he threw three of the nine total curveballs in succession to Teixeira in that at-bat, hanging the last one which resulted in two big runs. If the offense is flowing, that's not the end of the world, but that home run was too big of a challenge for the Mets to overcome last night.

Gee got off to a real rocky start in 2012 thanks to an inconsistent change-up. Last year, he used that pitch effectively to get left-handed hitters out ' they hit .224 against him last year. However, before this most recent stretch of success, lefties were hitting well over .300 against him and he was getting pummeled. However, he has found a feel for that along with his slider and has improved his opposing average against lefties ' they're now hitting .286 against him. If he can maintain this rhythm, Gee should be able to put the start of his 2012 season in the rear view mirror.