THE RUNDOWN
The Mets lose a shortstop but win a game against the Rockies on the back of Neil Walker’s bat.
A WHOPPING 118 PITCHES
Noah Syndergaard’s first out of the game was most representative of the outing he would end up having. Thor poured in 98 mile-per-hour sinkers and 90 mile-per-hour sinkers and changeups to Charlie Blackmon, but Blackmon wouldn’t give in, fouling off about a million pitches (seven, to be exact.) Finally, on the 11th pitch, Blackmon lined the ball to left field, which Brandon Nimmo dove to catch. It wasn’t pretty, and it took a lot of pitches, but it got the job done — much like the rest of Syndergaard’s game.
The Mets struck first in the bottom of the first. With Asdrubal Cabrera on first base (after he made the questionable decision to bunt, which forced out Alejandro De Aza at second), Walker blasted a ball off the right field wall. Ahead of Walker, who easily pulled into third, Cabrera made it home to score the first run of the game. However, he strained the patellar tendon in his left knee in the process, left in the third inning and might have to go on the DL.
The Rockies answered in the top of the second when Daniel Descalso singled home David Dahl to tie the game at 1-1, but the Mets pulled ahead when Rockies pitcher Chad Bettis walked Nimmo and Rene Rivera (after having both of them on 0-2 counts) and gave up a single to De Aza to put the Mets up 2-1.
After Syndergaard put up a 1-2-3 inning — albeit a 22-pitch one — Nimmo singled in Walker to give the Mets a two-run lead. In the next half inning, the Rockies tightened that to one. Michael Conforto muffed a Dahl single, allowing him to advance all the way to third. Two batters later, Descalso lined a ball on the outer part of the plate over Walker’s head that drove home Dahl. The next inning, the Rockies tied the game on a Carlos Gonzalez double.
THE BIG BLAST
Syndergaard entered the sixth inning already with 105 pitches, unlikely to make it through the frame, but had his easiest inning of the game, retiring the next three Rockies batters he faced on just 13 pitches to leave the game with a whopping total of 118. His replacement in the seventh, Jerry Blevins, is usually money, but the Mets left the lefty specialist in for the entire inning, and the Rockies got to him. With runners on second and third and one out, Blevins walked righty to DJ LeMahieu to get to lefty Gonzalez. Even with the favorable matchup, you’re never putting yourself in a great position when you walk someone intentionally to get to CarGo. Luckily, the slugger didn’t do too much damage, but he did enough, plating another run with a sacrifice fly to give the Rockies the lead.
However, the Rockies found themselves in a similar position in the next half inning, sending their own lefty specialist, Boone Logan, to pitch to multiple batters. Logan walked two batters and got two outs when Walker came to the plate. In this situation, he might’ve been better off just walking Walker to get to the lefty-hitting Conforto. Walker smacked a ball into the left field seats to give the Mets a 6-4 lead, a lead they’d never give up. Addison Reed allowed just one hit in the eighth, and Jeurys Familia closed the game in the ninth with two groundouts and a strikeout to give the Mets their 54th win of the season.
NOTES
– Neil Walker is red hot, as he’s gone 12 for his last 19.
– Syndergaard’s 118 pitches were the most he’s thrown all season.
– The Mets will throw Logan Verrett against the Yankees’ CC Sabathia in Queens tonight at 7:05.
Photo credit: Anthony Gruppuso – USA Today Sports