The Mets avoided being swept at Pittsburgh and ended their two-year losing streak against the Pirates with a tumultuous 6-5 victory.
Noah Syndergaard allowed two earned runs in 6 innings of what was a solid, but very un-Thor like outing. The first of two fielding errors by Neil Walker (perhaps nervous in front of his old fans) added a third unearned run to Syndergaard’s pitching line. Jim Henderson pitched a lousy inning, quickly allowing two runs to give the Pirates the lead. Both Syndergaard and Henderson had their hands full with Gregory Polanco, who mashed three doubles. Thankfully, Addison Reed pitched two stellar innings and Jeurys Familia, despite three walks, was able to lock it down in the 10th inning.
Offensively, this rag tag lineup managed to scrape together some runs tonight behind home runs from Michael Conforto (could it be a slump buster?) and Ty Kelly (his first big league long ball) and three hits from Yoenis Cespedes.
The Mets now stand at 32-26 and get a bit of a reprieve with a road series in Milwaukee. Bartolo Colon takes the hill tomorrow night.
The Mets came back four times to win this game. The team has shown some character, especially after the double header loss Tuesday where they couldn’t hit at all. They easily could have been discouraged and packed in this one also. They suffered the same frustration in their hitting during the 8th inning when in a tie game they could not score the go ahead run from third with nobody out. Instead of folding the tents they won this game in the tenth and vaulted ahead of the Pirates for the first wild card spot.
The Replace-Mets were integral as a Ty Kelly homer tied it early and Flores had the game winning hit. The good news was three RBI’s by Conforto , two by homer and a sac fly. Non-Superman Cespedes also contributed three hits so maybe the hitting drought is over. The Brewers pitching may be a good remedy.
Big Thank You Addison Reed. Familia, although not right, did get the job done for the 35th straight time. It is a tribute that even in hard times this team does not give up.
Reed has been out best reliever these past few weeks.
The Pirates look like a really good team.
Sure hope we don’t have to face them in a wild card game.