Jacob deGrom squared off against another fallen All Star in Matt Cain as the Mets looked to follow up their 13-1 drubbing of the Giants on Friday night. David Wright sat out ahead of Sunday’s game against lefty Madison Bumgarner, giving Wilmer Flores his seventh start of the year. Rene Rivera also made his Met debut, spelling Kevin Plawecki for the day game after a night game.
The Mets continued their recent trend of establishing first inning leads. Curtis Granderson and Michael Conforto singled and Lucas Duda walked to load the bases for Neil Walker. Walker added on to his hot April with a broken bat single into right field, scoring Granderson and Conforto and giving the second baseman 19 RBI in the month of April. The Mets weren’t done, as they’d add another two runs on an opposite field double by Conforto that missed clearing the orange line by about three inches. For Conforto, it was his sixth straight game with a double, giving him the franchise record.
Meanwhile, deGrom was uncharacteristically struggling with his control. After an excellent first inning in which he flashed 95 for the first time this season, deGrom walked two batters in the second. He escaped that jam with a strikeout and a groundout, but found himself in trouble again after a throwing error by Wilmer Flores extended the third inning. With runners on first and second and two outs, deGrom would walk the next two batters (forcing in one run) and allow a two RBI bloop to Hunter Pence, cutting the Met lead to one. All three runs were unearned, but deGrom clearly didn’t have his best stuff.
With the score at 4-3, the Mets offense was quiet in the third and fourth. They’d get some insurance back in the fifth, when Michael Conforto jumped on a first pitch changeup and hit a towering home run to right field, his fourth on the season and his third hit of the day. Conforto’s line on the season now sits at .365/.442/.676 to go with his four homers, 11 doubles and 18 RBI.
DeGrom returned to the mound for the sixth looking to close his outing on a high note, and his control seemed to be much improved as he set down Buster Posey, Brandon Belt and Hunter Pence in order. While he was unable to extend his streak of 50 starts with more strikes than balls on first pitches, deGrom still managed to persevere and give up only the three unearned runs, lowering his ERA on the season to 1.09.
Meanwhile, Matt Cain continued to toil on the mound for the Giants, as Bruce Bochy looked to conserve his bullpen after Friday’s beatdown. Walker struck out looking to leadoff the inning before Wilmer Flores got off the schneid and hit a hanging slider at the waist (a pitch our own Jeffery Paternostro has a phrase for) into the left field seats for his first home run and RBI of the year. It was his first home run at Citi Field since the now infamous ‘tears of joy’ walkoff blast on July 31, 2015.
Jim Henderson came on in relief of Jacob deGrom to start the seventh inning and started strong, striking out Brandon Crawford and Kelby Tomlinson on fastballs. Conor Gillaspie then worked an excellent at bat and doubled to left center, and Denard Span followed that up with another solid at-bat that ended in a walk. At 22 pitches, Henderson seemed gassed, so Terry Collins brought in Addison Reed to strike out Angel Pagan and end the threat.
The Giants were far from done fighting, however. Matt Duffy fouled off five straight two-strike pitches before working a twelve-pitch walk against Reed to start the top of the eighth. Buster Posey and Brandon Belt followed with a single and a walk, and the bases were quickly loaded with no one out. Terry Collins summoned Hansel Robles, who surrendered two long sacrifice flies to Hunter Pence and Brandon Crawford that brought the score to 6-5. Robles left after allowing a single to Kelby Tomlinson, but Jerry Blevins came in to get a ground out from Gregor Blanco to escape the jam with the one-run lead still intact.
Closer Jeurys Familia entered for the top of the ninth and kept Mets fans’ heart rates high by surrendering a lead off single to Denard Span. No problem for Familia, who bore down and induced a double play grounder from Angel Pagan (with some help from a good turn by Asdrubal Cabrera and a fantastic stretch by Duda at first) before getting Matt Duffy to ground to Wilmer Flores at third. Flores again threw wide of the bag, but Duda was able to corral this one and tag Duffy to end the game.
With the victory, the Mets extend their win streak to eight games, closing out April with a 15-7 record, the second best run differential in baseball (trailing only the Cubs). Now standing only a half game back of the 16-7 Nationals, the early season panic that engulfed Mets fans has long since abated – the team is 12-2 since dropping their third series of the season to the Marlins on April 13. Noah Syndergaard will toe the rubber against San Francisco ace Madison Bumgarner as the Mets go for the sweep and their ninth straight victory on Sunday.
Photo credit: Noah K. Murray – USA Today Sports