After sweeping the cross town Yankees, the Mets welcomed the hottest team in baseball to Citi Field, the Astros, who had strung together seven straight wins to get themselves back to .500. Jose Quintana muddled his way through four innings throwing 93 pitches with only 54 strikes. He was touched for a Jose Altuve HR in the first, a run the Mets got back with a Francisco Alvarez sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the inning. Astros got a single run in the third to take the lead but for them that was it. Four Met relievers shut out the Astros the rest of the way.
The Mets’ bats came alive with a home run by Tyrone Taylor in the 4th to tie the game and Pete Alonso’s 419 foot blast gave them the lead in the 6th. They weren’t done in the 6th as Jeff McNeil, who had an uncharacteristic 3-4 night, blasted a three run dinger just over the wall in right field. A Lindor double in the 8th brought in the 7th and final run and despite allowing two hits, Reed Garrett closed the door in the ninth.
A 7-2 win puts the a Mets a game over .500 for the first time in nearly two months and gives them a legitimate chance to finish over .500 when the month is done. Tylor Megill against Framber Valdez in a late afternoon start tomorrow, and Luis Severino in an early day game on Sunday against a yet to be determined opponent.
It’s been quite a fun month to be a Met fan.
When was the last time that we had a Mets lineup with no real weak links? McNeil may (and I emphasize “may”) be coming out of his season-long funk, with two legit hits tonight! OMG! And Taylor almost had two HRs.
OMG. The Mets are over .500. They are 0.5 games out of a WC. Omg.
My favorite part of this game was the McNeil HR. He needs to become the player he was, or as close as he can get. My least favorite was Alonso swinging at two Ball Fours in the first inning with no one out and the sacks drunk. Oh well.
Brian brought up in the chatter that they were using their best bet to be a closer up five runs. I understand that wasn’t ideal usage, but, we’ll see.
Gut reaction: Nunez picked up another win. he has been so important this season in the bullpen, especially with the rash of injuries and suspension.
Taylor has stepped up his game with the injury to Marte. He is a good bench player and fourth outfielder.
It was a nice to see McNeil break out, especially his home run.
Quintana pitched and gave The Mets a chance to win, but four innings is not acceptable for our starter.
Let’s get another series win today.
I thought being up five runs at home in the ninth inning would have been the ideal time to give Ty Adcock his first inning as a Met. Being a man down in the pen is a challenge and it was less than great having to use four relievers in this game. Hopefully Diekman and Garrett are both available Saturday.
Three more homers for the Mets, giving them an even 100 for the season. That’s the fourth-best mark in the majors.
This is the start of a 17-game stretch with no days off. So the pen is a potential concern that bear watching, now that the depth has been depleted by inuries and suspension.
If they decide they need to rotate a fresh arm in, Cole Sulser and Josh Walker are the only available (healthy) arms currently on the 40-man. Hopefully that’ll be enough to get through the next 7 games till Diaz’ return, and SRF won’t be too far behind.