The Mets got back to their winning ways by taking the opener of the latest installment of the Subway Series by a 5-1 score. The Nationals and Marlins were going to extra innings, so right now the magic number is eight.
If you like bombs, this was a game for you. Lucas Duda, Daniel Murphy and Juan Uribe all went deep. Murphy also added a triple and pinch-runner Eric Young Jr. later came around to score, pushing the lead to four.
Steven Matz remained perfect and upped his record to 4-0. He went six innings and settled down after some early jitters to be in a groove the last few innings. Even when his defense let him down with some slow-played balls and poor throws, Matz didn’t flinch.
With Tyler Clippard unavailable, Hansel Robles and Addison Reed locked down the 7th and 8th with identical 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB and 2 Ks lines. And even though the Mets tacked on a run in the ninth to remove the save situation, Jeurys Familia came on and loaded the bases with one out but escaped without allowing a run.
Magic number is 8, can’t wait!
Seems that Jim Leyland reached out to his buddy Collins and told him to get Cespedes because he will really help the Mets. Good call Jim. I always wanted you to be sitting in our dugout.
Further, with the Dodgers still 1 1/2 games in front, there’s plenty of motivation for the Mets to “keep the pedal to the metal” and don’t let up. Another Collins note was that several managerial friends of his told him that their best success was when they played hard continuously going into the postseason.
The Mets played like a championship team last night.
The rookie was able to get a win by pitching six innings of one run ball on a night that he couldn’t command his fastball. This starting staff is awesome.
Duda made his home run drought “water under the bridge” with a baseball under the Shea Bridge.
Murphy crushed his also, and his triple was tagged also.
One of my concerns was that TC would be unable to properly handle the influx of players and keep they all happy. TC has been masterful at this and the Uribe home run was just another time that he has pushed the right button. Nice job TC.
I am not sure that Familia should have been used in a non save situation. It was the first game of the series so why let the Yanks get a read on him. It also was the beginning of consecutive games with no off days and now he may be burned out for a day. There is always a chance of injury so why take it with playoff baseball on the horizon.
Great win with 43,000 in the stands. Let’s get the Series win today!
It is said, by old baseball types when they run out of other things to say, that you can learn more about a pitcher when he doesn’t have his best stuff or best command. It must be true, because I have a growing confidence in Steven Matz to keep his team in the game. He corrected his command issues in mid-game, getting stronger as the game progressed.
It doesn’t hurt that he can dial it up to 97 when required. Anyway, I absolutely believe Matz is worth more to the Mets as a 6 inning post season starter, if that’s what Matz is at present, then he ever could be as a one inning reliever.
Really, all he has to be is a guy who gives his team a better chance to win than Jonathan Niece would. Does anyone doubt that he does?
DED, I’m with you. Niese is obviously the odd man out. I don’t even see a spot for him on the post season roster. I’d go with the 4 youn guns and let Colon play the El Sid role.
Exactly.
I guess it must have made a strong impression on me at the time; I find myself referring to the El Sid role, like, often.
Totally in agreement. I take a six inning Matz because this pen has got it going on!
I just hope to any diety or atheistic inanimate object that people appeal to for inspiration that Niese and Parnell are not brought up just because of Mets long term status and that they “deserve it” for long term suffering. Neither has any business on the post season team.
Remember when the Giants left Barry Zito off their post season roster in 2010? It was noted, hardly commented upon, and Zito was a former Cy Young winner. Of course at that point Zito was lucky to be getting those inflated paychecks.
It’s not Collins’ fault that Jonathan and Parnell haven’t pitched well enough to warrant a roster spot in the afterlife. In fact Collins is noteworthy for giving a struggling player chance after chance; watching him summoning Parnell from the pen earlier, a thought of what Keith Hernandez said about Doug Sisk, circa 1985: he should get down on his knees and thank Davey Johnson for all the chances he’s been given.
Did anyone else see Addison Reed? The guy looked beyond filthy. He struck out Beltran on three pitches, got a foul-out from McCann on an 0-1 pitch, and the proceeded to strike Gregory Bird out on three pitches. He was a strike away from an immaculate inning.
If Reed can duplicate a Clippard-esque performance, then the final three innings will be locked and loaded.
Who picks the post-season roster? The GM or the manager? Or do they collaborate? It could be just my perspective, but it seems to be Collins more so than SA that has hard-ons for Parnell and Niese. I think/hope that SA would want to see his boys in the post-season and favor them over holdovers from the prior regime.
It must be a collaboration, but I don’t know. Even still SA must be part of this because he gave Parmell a choice of DL, DFA, or minor league demotion. What GM have you ever heard of that does that? Of course Parnell chose DL, and now he’s back. We had the chance to dump him, chance gone. I’m holding my breath, but I expect both to be holding roster spots in Oct much to my heavy dismay.