On a date freighted with New York Mets history, both disastrous and triumphant, the Mets got themselves a win over a quality team. This makes it two in a row over the Padres, eight-out-of-ten overall, another series win and maybe something brewing this season after all.
Rookie Adam Mazur made his first career start in New York and it appeared the Big City got to him a little bit, walking six and allowing one hit through the first three innings. The Mets, though, as is their wont, couldn’t capitalize on Mazur’s generosity. For his part, Jose Quintana looked surprisingly sharp through three innings and was helped out by some sparkling defense in the top of the fourth. Brandon Nimmo hustled over to the left field line to snag a foul pop by Fernando Tatis, Jr., giving a fan a hearty hhandshake in the process. After a walk to Jurickson Profar, Manny Macado hit shallow fly to right, where D. J. Stewart made the grab at his shoe tops. DH Donovan Solano then hit a shot up the middle, which was speared by Francisco Lindor on a lunge to his left, then flipped to Jeff McNeil at second for the inning-ending force on Profar.
In the bottom half, the Mets’ offense woke up, somewhat. With two outs, Lindor roped a hit to deep left that Profar hobbled after and couldn’t get to. It was fielded by centerfielder Jackson Merrill as Lindor hustled into second. Nimmo hit the next pitch to right center — just as deep — and ended up with a double of his own and a 1-0 Mets lead. That was all for young Mazur, as he was replaced by Jhony Brito. J. D. Martinez greeted Brito with a two-run bomb over the right-center field fence. To quote Keith Hernandez on the SNY broadcast “I don’t know where the Mets’d be without him.” Martinez now has 11 RBI in his last seven games.
After striking out Jake Cronenworth to start the fifth, Quintana served up a meatball of his own, to Merrill, making the score 3-1. He then struck out Ha-Seong Kim and Kyle Higashioka to thwart any further damage. After the Mets went quietly in the fifth, Quintana issued a one-out walk to Tatis, but then got Profar on a nifty double play, Vientos-to-McNeil-to-Alonso. That ended Quintana’s day, six innings, 88 pitches: a nice afternoon’s work.
Dedniel Nunez took over and turned in a clean seventh. In the bottom half, Martinez struck again, depositing a low four-seamer from Enyel De Los Santos in about the same spot as his earlier shot. Nunez set the Padres down without incident in the eighth. Stephen Kolek took over for De Los Santos and surrendered a parachute single to Jeff McNeil. Harrison Bader followed with a swinging bunt to Machado at third. Lindor’s groundout to first sent McNeil to third, bringing up Nimmo for a critical at bat — Kolek did not want to face Martinez again — and he looped an RBI bingle to left for the 5-1 lead. Martinez dribbled a base hit up the middle, mercifully from a Padres standpoint, but Pete Alonso couldn’t bring Nimmo around.
Reed Garrett came on in the ninth to face a dangerous section of the San Diego lineup. Tatis grounded out to third. Profar struck out swinging. Machado hit a one-hopper to McNeil at second, and that was that. With the Cardinals losing to the Cubs earlier, the Mets, believe it or not, find themselves just two games out of the third wild card spot in the NL.
Whodathunkit?
Gut Reaction: if you played the trificata with JD Martinez then you won! Three hits, three RBIs, three victories because of JD Martinez. In the last three games he has carried the team on his shoulders. Nimmo in the 2 spot, had 2 hits and 2 RBI’s and now they are 2 back of the Wild card.. Numerology was rampant at Citi Field ! Another scoreless multi-inning relief job by Nunez.
Nice pitching and JD. Lindor and Nimmo had good games. This is the kind of game they need to play more often. Megill for the sweep. Ya Gotta Believe!
Chris is about to get his wish!
Nice win and good job by Quintana and the red hot JD. Even in an offensive outburst of a home game, putting up a 5 spot, the Mets managed to provide some offensive futility by failing to score a run in the first 3 innings despite being issued 6 walks…that Al had not been “accomplished” since 1979. Thankfully one guy is hot.