Francisco Lindor belted two homers and David Peterson pitched into the eighth inning, leading the Mets to a 7-1 win over the Padres in San Diego Saturday night. The Mets have won two of the first three games and will look to claim the series win Sunday afternoon.
Lindor’s first home run was a grand slam, which put the Mets up 5-0. His second homer made it 6-1 in the seventh inning. Lindor went deep from both sides of the plate.
It was another case of Peterson being the anti-deGrom, the pitcher on the mound who receives a bunch of offensive support. But it’s not like he needed it in this case. When you allow just 1 ER in 7.1 IP, you’re doing all right. The win upped Peterson’s record to 8-1 and lowered his ERA to 2.85. He’s not going to have enough innings to qualify for the ERA title but it’s been impressive with the way that he’s strung a bunch of low-scoring efforts together this year.
It was a Carlos Mendoza special tonight, with him allowing a pitcher to pitch another frame but remove him once he allows a baserunner. Mendoza did this despite Peterson cruising with a six-run lead.
While it was frustrating to watch this desire to go to the pen, at least this time it meant that we got to see Dedniel Nunez return to the mound. And Nunez turned in 1.2 scoreless innings and looked like he didn’t miss a beat.
And it’s also worth noting that Harrison Bader ended his 0-20 stretch. We knew he wouldn’t go the rest of the year without getting a hit. But we didn’t know he’d break the slump with a home run! And you’d have to be a cruel person to note that Bader’s HR came against the same pitcher who gave up 7 H and 5 ER on Thursday in the ninth inning.
Gut Reaction: Peterson pitched great. In August he has not given up more than two earn runs in any starts and has four quality starts to his credit. Lindor delivered a clutch Grand Slam in a game that was important. He has a 982 OPS in August and a 952 OPS in the second half. Nunez was nasty even if he didn’t mention Bader’s opponent . They have the split, so now get greedy and win the series.
Thank you Mr. Peterson. Thank you Mr. Lindor. Mets hold at down 3 in loss column. All hands on deck for series finale except for Peterson and Nunez.
With apologies to the 1972 Red Sox, at the end of the season, if it makes any difference, teams will all have played the same number of games. So, there’s no difference in the “loss” or “win” column.