The Mets defeated the Twins tonight at Citi Field 3-2 in extras. It was a slog of a game, taking four hours and 15 minutes to complete.
- Seth Lugo started for the Mets and was effective if not great. He only lasted 5 innings and had trouble with walks, giving Twins hitters four free passes on the night. He was able to limit the damage, though, minus a solo homer by Eddie Rosario in fourth.
- The Mets had no solution for Ervin Santana and no solution for the Twins’ bullpen for most of the night. They struck out 16 times and squandered several opportunities to score. At one point in the seventh they had the bases loaded and poor Michael Conforto was fed to the wolves by Terry Collins to try to make something happen. He struck out on a (surprise surprise) breaking ball. It was almost as if he hadn’t gotten a lot of playing time and maybe shouldn’t have been put in that situation…They finally broke through in the eighth when Yoenis Cespedes knocked Jose Reyes in to tie it.
- Should we talk about the number of players Collins used in this one? By my calculations he used roughly 87 different guys. Sure, it took 12 innings to end it, but yeesh. September baseball.
- The 11th inning was pretty exciting to watch. Curtis Granderson tied the game with a solo homer (after Hansel Robles gave up the lead on a Byron Buxton solo homer in the tenth). Then the following sequence occurred: Jay Bruce fly out, T.J. Rivera single, Brandon Nimmo single, Kevin Plawecki almost winning the game but hitting the pitcher and thrown out, Matt Reynolds hit by pitch to load the bases. It was as if the Las Vegas 51s were determined to not let the NY Mets squander this thing. Oh, Reyes struck out looking.
- Mr. Granderson decided that 12 innings was quite enough baseball and belted the game-winning solo home run in the bottom of the 12th. His first homer tied the Mets’ franchise record for team home runs in a season at 200 and his second homer broke it at 201. Fantastic.
Most home runs in a season?
Most team home runs, yes. I’ve clarified that in the post.
Not that there would much confusion on that. 🙂
As I said earlier & elsewhere, I would have sat Granderson last night.
A magical night for the Mets like September 15, 1969 when Steve Carlton struck out 19 Mets and lost 4-3 on a pair of rwo run homeruns by Ron Swoboda. Welcome to the club Curtis!
Seth Lugo did a nice job.
Michael Conforto is giving me cause to worry.
Thank goodness they allowed unlimited rosters last night but really Commissioner lets address the issue and limit the game roster to 25.
Granderson hit his second homerun to end it because TC said before the AB that he would be starting this afternoon. 🙂
Bruce should sit next to Curtis in the dugout and definitely away from him in the batting order.
TJ Rivera is leaving a mark. Series win, lets get greedy and keep the #1 WC spot, Ynoa what I mean?
With all the hurting players= man what can I say = go Mets wow wow looks like 1969 all over again.
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Josh Smoker had a rough introduction to MLB but he seems to be pitching much better here lately. I hope he keeps getting chances although I worry that he may not dominate LHB as much as the brass would prefer he did.
Had to leave before the Grandy heroics because I had my 6-year-old in tow but the energy at Citi was amazing. To pack the stadium against a bad team in September is saying something. Also, the fans were relentlessly booing Jay Bruce.