Drew Smith gave up the go-ahead run on an RBI double in the eighth inning, as the Giants outlasted the Mets, 5-4, Sunday night in San Francisco. The Mets finished their West Coast trip with a 7-3 record, despite dropping the last two.
It was a battle of the bullpens, as the Giants’ starter left after 3.1 IP and Tylor Megill exited after four frames. Each pen allowed just one run, the difference being the four runs Megill allowed. After three solid starts to begin the season, Megill has allowed 7 ER in 9 IP his past two outings.
Jeff Brigham threw two scoreless innings and Brooks Raley turned in his ninth straight game without allowing a run.
In what is purely an after-the-fact second guess, it’s at least a little bit surprising that Buck Showalter didn’t turn to David Robertson to pitch the eighth inning instead of Smith. Robertson hadn’t pitched since Wednesday and the Mets have Monday off. We know Showalter likes to utilize Robertson to face LHB and the Giants had lefties Joc Pederson and Mike Yastrzemski due up second and third in the eighth.
Pederson started the winning rally with a one-out walk and Yastrzemski drove him home with the double.
The Mets’ offense this year has been driven by Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo and those two went 0-8 in the game, which made things difficult.
With Jeff McNeil and Daniel Vogelbach getting on base early, Mets rookies Brett Baty and Francisco Alvarez had multiple chances with RISP. Baty got on twice but was unable to hit the ball hard enough to drive in a run. Alvarez hit into an inning-ending double play in the second inning and he struck out in the fourth, with both chances coming with the bases loaded.
But Alvarez tied the game in the sixth inning with a solo homer, the first time this year a Met catcher delivered an extra-base hit.
The Mets went down 1-2-3 in the ninth inning to end the game. After a day off Monday,, the Mets start a 7-game homestand with a three-game series against the Nationals.
Friday night we had a vision of a sweep in SF but ended up with a split and still had a successful west coast road trip. Can’t win them all and thrilled to see Alvarez connect. The kid should be in the cage everyday figuring out why he is not hitting at this level. His catching seems passable but we desperately need another HR bat in the lineup. Someone who could end a game with one swing of the bat. Another week before Max comes back and a few more days after for Verlander. Last year we seemed to get 6 innings from our starters on a regular basis, but that’s not the case so far and needing to trot out 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th starters instead of 1-4 is not helpful to the cause. Bless them for what they have done thus far and for a pen that has mostly been untouched. We need to fatten up on the Nats because the Braves, fresh off being blasted by the Astros will certainly be up for next weekend’s series. LGM
Gut Reaction: sometimes the bullpen can be scored upon. It happens and sometimes you lose. That was the case last night.
But the chatter was fun and interesting. Alvarez was the topic a few times. The speed of his ground out double play, his catching, his relaxation and his home run. There was a discussion about Buster Posey for the Hall of Fame. There was a long discussion about sticky substances and the Scherzer suspension, The Ruf- JD trade, the calls of the home umpire, a Phamtastic, and a non violation capital letters post of the homerun were also included in the chatter. Even though Mets lost the chatter made my Sunday evening very enjoyable.