Francisco Lindor drove in seven runs and the Mets set a club record with 17 walks as the Mets clubbed the A’s, 17-6, in the opening game of the team’s 10-game West Coast trip Friday night in Oakland.
The A’s entered the game with their starting pitchers having a 9.93 ERA, a little more than three runs worse than the 29th-place mark in the league. And this game didn’t help matters, as their SP allowed 6 ER in 3.2 IP.
Five walks and a grand slam by Lindor set the tone in the second inning, giving the Mets a 6-0 lead. The A’s cut it to 6-3 in the bottom of the fourth inning and then the walks-plus-Lindor offense struck again for the Mets in the fifth.
Lindor hit a bases-clearing double this go-round and by the time the inning was over, the Mets had a 12-3 lead. The Mets ended up scoring six runs with only one hit in an inning twice in the game, something the announcers said hadn’t been done in MLB since before 1957.
The Mets ended up with 11 hits, as Brandon Nimmo, Starling Marte, Lindor, Pete Alonso and Luis Guillorme each had two hits. Nimmo, Marte and Guillorme each reached base five times in the game.
Tomas Nido went 0-4 and saw his AVG drop to .107 for the season. How bad is that? He fell behind everyone’s favorite whipping guy, as Eduardo Escobar had a late hit to raise his AVG to .114 this season.
The Mets want to shield Francisco Alvarez from catching Kodai Senga but hopefully he’ll get to catch a bunch the next few games to spare us from more Nido ABs.
Speaking of Senga, despite being staked to a big lead early, he failed to go long enough in the contest to win his third game in as many starts. He allowed 4 ER in 4.2 IP and surrendered two home runs.
Even though the bullpen had to give 4.1 IP in the game, all of the big guns got the night off, leaving the Mets in good shape for the rest of the series.
At least this happy recap was fun to write! Even though we are playing the lowly Oakland A’s, it is nice to see a hit fest by most of the team. That Nido is untracked is disturbing, but less disturbing as long as he provides good defense at the catcher position. Escobar is quickly playing himself to the bench, especially the way Baty is heading down to AAA. Hoping that the terrible starting pitching of the A’s continues today, as well as the hitting prowess of most of our starting lineup. Big day for Lindor, especially in light of the last column of his increased strikeouts. We have been taking about Senga and his walks and HRs and we saw 4 and 2 in this game. Would have been nice for his stats to pick up the win but I’ll take the win regardless. Hoping Cookie gets untracked today.
Gut Reaction: it was a crappy game to watch. The walks made it seem like a little league game. The weather and the long rests between innings were the reasons why Senga couldn’t complete five innings for the win. A win is a win though.
Amen to that, Metsense! I figured with the pitch clock, I could finally watch a late game from the West Coast, but alas, the game dragged on with all the walks and was 3:29.
I watched 2/3 of the game, and the bottom of the order for the Mets still looked bad—even against the horrible A’s pitchers. Voggie gets on base with all his walks, but where is his power? Escobar still looks lost up there. Nido really stinks as a batter. Baty will have to be called up by mid-May.
And please let Mauricio play at other positions in Syracuse!
I love this slash line: .000/.333/.000. You know who—Tim Locastro!