Max Scherzer bounced back from two bad outings with eight strong innings and the Mets batted around twice, leading to an 11-1 win over the Astros in the opener of a three-game series Monday night in Houston. The Mets had lost their last seven games versus their fellow expansion mates.
Scherzer went more to his fastball and had a lot of success throwing it for strikes on the outside corner. The result was a low pitch count and no runs until the game was in hand. Scherzer allowed a homer in the seventh inning, the only run he allowed. He walked one and fanned eight and gave the bullpen an easy night with his eight-inning performance.
Meanwhile, after going six up and six down, the Mets busted out for five runs in the third inning. Daniel Vogelbach started things off with a moon-shot home run to right field. Francisco Lindor capped things off with a three-run homer of his own. Those two would strike again in the ninth, as Lindor delivered a two-run double and Vogelbach added a two-run single.
The Mets finished with 14 hits and six different players having multi-hit nights. Starling Marte and Jeff McNeil each had two … wait for it … singles, as did Brett Baty, while red-hot Tommy Pham had a single, double, two runs scored and an RBI.
David Groveman favorite Grant Hartwig was called up earlier in the day and made his MLB debut in the ninth inning. He allowed a leadoff single but got a double play and closed out the game. Hartwig hit 96 mph in his debut.
Always amazed how quickly the game summary gets posted. Needed a big game from Max and we got it. My favorite punching bag with another HR and big late inning single. Make me eat my words Danny Boy. They even played well in the field turning the DPs. Nice feeds by Baty and turns by McNeil. Nimmo the only one without a knock. Tough pitching matchups the next few days.
Gut Reaction: the Astros deserved to lose for wearing those hideous uniforms. Pham is the best hitter on the team right now. (1.044 OPS in his last 15 games) Maybe Lindor is starting a hot streak. ( .904 0PS in his last 7 games.) I hope so. It was a nice game for Scherzer. Let’s get the series win tonight with Verlander starting.
This needs to become the every day of our offense and we need our pitching from Scherzer and Verlander to be at this level for the vast majority of their starts. Our team was supposed to be this good. Let’s just be that good.
Kudos to Max, that is the guy we need to see every 5 days with few exceptions. That said, despite his HOF credentials, it’s hard to expect and count on that through the post season based how he’s looked combined with his age. Hopefully he’ll defy Father Time for another year or two.
this game was “the potential” of this team. we’ve seen that potential too inconsistently all season. The Phillies have gone 13-2 since we swept them 2 weeks ago. We need that kind of run heading into the all star break.
Agreed on all counts.
The Mets opened the year 14-7 and haven’t had anything remotely like that since. A team with Scherzer, Senga and Verlander should be able to have a couple of more runs like that before the year is out.