Brandon Nimmo had three hits in his return to the active roster and Taijuan Walker came up with another strong outing – even if he was pulled too early – leading the Mets to an 8-3 win over the Yankees in the Bronx Saturday afternoon.
Nimmo led off the game with a single and he finished with three hits and two runs scored. The top of the lineup got it done for the Mets today, as the first three hitters went a combined 8-15 with two walks. There’s no telling how many runs the Mets would have scored if their 4-5-6 hitters did better than 1-13.
But while the offense came thru after starting 0-5 with RISP, this game had some strong pitching for the Mets, too. Walker held the Yankees hitless for 5.1 innings, until Aaron Judge homered to get the Yankees on the board. One out later, Giancarlo Stanton singled and Luis Rojas removed Walker from the game. His pitch count was getting up there but this is a case where the manager is simply too eager to go to the bullpen.
Miguel Castro came in and didn’t have it. He had to be bailed out by Jeurys Familia, who looked good in his four-out appearance. Drew Smith looked even better in his two-inning performance to close the game, which leaves the Mets’ top four relievers rested and ready for tomorrow’s doubleheader.
Walker got the win to move to 7-3 on the season. The Mets are now 12-3 in Walker’s 15 starts this year. Whenever someone else starts, the team is just 30-33.
Love Walker!
Maybe Donaldson isn’t such a good idea. Story,anybody. A 2 month rental shouldn’t be too expensive in talent.
Gut Reaction: A solid win with good pitching and offense. Dom Smith is starting to hit and his OPS broke .700 at .716. A was great to see Nimmo at the top of the order igniting the offense with three hits. Castro is in a funk. Drew Smith pitched well and probably leaped frog Castro in pecking order of the bullpen. Walker was dominating in his quest for a spot for all star team.
I’ve been wanting Drew Smith to move onto a higher plane… like there were a few games when the Mets had large leads that I thought Drew Smith might have closed, instead Luis chose Diaz, which I thought was paranoid and short-sighted. Smith has some fairly electric stuff at times and is certainly capable of a scoreless inning or two.
Castro, on the other hand, has lost it. I think he needs to regroup, maybe spend some time in Syracuse. He clearly cannot be trusted with anything precious at this point… I believe he has not had a scoreless appearance in quite some time. Castro is shiny enough at 6’7″ with some nasty stuff, that he might package well with another player for some trade bait… he’s Dillon Betances in some GM’s eyes…
Met’s bullpen looking decent though. Diaz, Lugo, maybe May, Loup, Smith, offer some legit options in close games. Oswalt looks good as a long man, emergency starter. If Carrasco can make it back, Mets will start flexing some muscle. Megill might push Peterson to get a grip, bear down, get nasty, and reach more of his own potential…
Really fun watching the Yankees body language in the ninth inning yesterday…. they are clearly at a very low point. Let’s battle Cole today and drive the nail deeper!
The issue has simply been not cashing in on runners in scoring position. A number of losses in tight games can be attributed to the lack of a timely hit, a sac fly, or good forbid a squeeze bunt or safety squeeze when the infielders are so far out that I could leg out a hit to 1B. Okay, so I’ve never had speed and these days even dropping down a bunt or even seeing a 95 mph fastball, let alone one in the 60 mph range, are far behind me. But fundamentals like advancing a runner and taking pitches when the pitcher seems to have lost the plate, and hitting the other way, have all been lost with the desire for a bloop and a blast or Earl Weaver’s fix to everything – the 3 run HR. So manufacturing runs with a bases loaded walk or a broken bat single not trying to do to much, or a single pushed the other way or being alert enough to score on a wild pitch was what made this a unique win for us. And something to learn from. The ball has changed and homers are down and strikeouts are up. How can they keep doctoring the game this way and call it acceptable? And don’t even get me started with 7 inning doubleheader games and starting a runner at 2B in extra innings because the new generation thinks the game is too long. Perhaps they should keep the clock running at all time in NFL games so I don’t have to suffer for 3.5 hours. Oh wait, I wasn’t suffering. Nor did I care if a game went 3-4 hours long as the Mets came out on top or at least if it was a good game with exciting offense or a pitching duel.
We are still a strong competitor in the NL East but it would be helpful if we could run off a string of wins and start gaining some space again from the rest of the division. Nimmo had a great return and shows why he needs to bat lead off. Another nice game for Dom whose best position is blocked by our only real home run threat. Walker should go to the Allstar game as he has pitched like an ace.
So much to be hopeful for. Some retooling is in place before the trade deadline and we seems to have the guts and cash to make that happen now. #LGM
It just seems like a weird time to advocate for bunting and sacrifice flies in a game the Mets won 8-3 without either of those things. This is a thread to talk about the game that just happened, not fixing things that may or may not have happened in other games this year.
Understood. Thanks.