Jose Bautista crushed a home run on the first pitch he saw in the ninth inning to lift the Mets to a 5-1 win over the Rays Friday night. It was the first ever walk-off homer for Bautista.

The Rays loaded the bases with one out in the ninth but could not push the go-ahead run across. Devin Mesoraco made a fine play on a lollipop throw from Wilmer Flores for the second out of the inning and Jeurys Familia, who loaded the bases on a walk, a bloop just over the outstretched arm of Amed Rosario and a hit by pitch, got a strikeout to end the inning.

The bottom of the ninth started with a walk to Todd Frazier. Mesoraco was asked to bunt and fouled the first pitch off. After two balls that he was prepared to bunt, Mesoraco was given the hit sign and bounced a ball past the drawn in third baseman. Rosario delivered a sac bunt to put runners on second and third. Pinch hitter Dominic Smith grounded back to the pitcher for the second out.

The Rays then shot themselves in the foot looking for the platoon advantage. They gave the abracadabra walk to a struggling Brandon Nimmo to get the right on right matchup with Bautista. But Bautista has a higher average against righties than lefties this year and he delivered a no-doubt homer, the 337th of his career.

It was another great outing for Jacob deGrom, who allowed just one run in eight innings while fanning eight. But once again he failed to get the win. At least the Mets won this time, as they picked up their third win in their last four games.

5 comments on “Gut Reaction: Mets 5, Rays 1 (7/6/18)

  • David Klein

    Man the Mets need to get rid of Bautista, he’s just too good and making all the teams other hitters on the team look bad and he’s hurting the tankjob, smh.

  • Mike Walczak

    A win is a win.

  • Michael

    I had forgotten what a walk-off felt like. I don’t like second guessing Mickey but I was surprised he didn’t pinch run Reyes for Frazier when he was bunted over to third. Better chance to win on a ground ball or short fly with Jose running. After 6 weeks of constant losing I would have sacrificed some infield defense for a better chance of winning.

  • Eraff

    Bautista has a 921 ops over 125 plate appearances…. that’s about 25 games worth of pa’s

    The Mets have still lost lots of games, even over the last 15-20 games… with Bautista as a Cespedes Substitute, you can almost say that you know how this team looks with Cespedes

    To be completely true, the team continues to lack dangerous bench players…: and the bullpen is a shambles—— so, Yes… this is the team “with Cespedes”

    The choices of roster construction and the available on field talent is not good enough 1 thru 25…. more importantly, 1 thru 40

    Getting beyond the Starting 9, the roster has been frail and exposed. Whatever our complaints about tight spending, they are not getting their money’s worth out of what they do spend—- that’s MLB roster thru The low minors.

    Alserson’s legacy is very plainly that he’s been behind the game for the past 7 years. His Think Tank has Tanked….. turn that page and find something better

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