It would have been easy for the Mets to roll over after a demoralizing loss last night. But despite that setback they battled all game and came away with a 3-2 win over the Diamondbacks Thursday afternoon in Phoenix. The victory gave the Mets the series win and it also gave them the season series versus the D’Backs.
Pete Alonso gave the Mets the early lead with a 439-foot homer. Francisco Lindor tied it with his 28th HR of the year, staying one behind Alonso for the team lead. The Mets took the lead in the ninth inning. Jesse Winker hit a one-out double and pinch-runner Tyrone Taylor advanced to third on a fly out to right. Jose Iglesias drove home the game-winner with a smash up the middle.
Edwin Diaz was called on to nail down the game and came thru with flying colors, thanks to a fastball that dominated. He had a 1-2-3 ninth with two K’s and an infield popup. After his last two outings, it was good to see.
David Peterson again pitched a great game, something the Mets desperately needed. He went seven innings and seemed to have gas left in the tank for another frame. He was pulled after 88 pitches. While he didn’t get the win, he lowered his ERA to 2.83 for the year and the Mets are now 13-3 in games Peterson has started this season.
Jose Butto relieved Peterson and allowed a two-out walk but no further damage happened because Arizona foolishly tried to steal a base with a slow runner against Luis Torrens. It ended up in an easy caught stealing, the 11th time Torrens has thrown out a baserunner in 18 attempts while with the Mets. Butto got the win and is now 6-3 for the year.
The Mets wound up 4-3 against the top two teams in the Wild Card chase – not a bad effort on the road against two hot teams. The road trip concludes in Chicago against the 104-loss White Sox. The Mets need to keep the pedal down if they want to remain relevant in the playoff chase.
They are clinging to the periphery of the race, but kudos to the team for hanging tough, for scratching out the go ahead run small ball style, and for Diaz notching the save with almost exclusively fast balls when everyone including opponent middle of the lineup hitters knew he’d avoid the slider helicopters.
Well said Brian and T.J. Sounds like someone had a “come to Jesus” conversation last night on reality and fantasy regarding his pitches.
As for the Mets, seems like if they didn’t have to use a bullpen, they would be 20 games in front of the Phillies. And we thought it was their starters that were the Achilles heel.
A five game winning streak and they might be in good shape.
Exactly. They’ve got to stop rebounding from horrible losses and showing their resiliency. It’s getting tiresome. Now they’ve got to just roll and show how they can sustain a winning streak.
Must acknowledge Dave Peterson, who used to wilt in big games the second time through the order, and now is becoming a trustworthy big game option for this team.
Gut Reaction: Peterson has three consecutive starts with seven or more innings pitches. Iglesias is a gamer. His enthusiasm and hustle is integral for the team this season. Winker again comes through in late innings. Butto gets the win. Diaz get the save. The San Diego nightmare is put to bed in their minds. Let’s take the series, or better yet a sweep, of the White Sox.
At this point in the season and where they are in the wild card race, the Mets absolutely need a sweep of the White Sox. To me, winning just 2 out of 3 to arguably the worst team of all time would be a complete and utter failure.
While it certainly would have created such better vibe to go 6-1 you can get too upset with 4-3 against those 2 teams. We now have 12 games against teams that are objectively worse than we are and we need to take advantage. This is the stretch that will determine whether we make the playoffs or not. A dominating 9-3 at least is what s needed heading into the Phillies series in 2 weeks.