The Mets (18-10) defeated the Baltimore Orioles (12-13) tonight at Citi Field 5-1, wrapping up a brief two-game sweep of Baltimore.
The Mets saw a little bump in the offense tonight, scoring five runs for the first time in ten games. They got it started when, in the second, Orioles starter Ubaldo Jimenez walked Michael Cuddyer and then Kevin Plawecki. Dilson Herrera then singled to center, driving Cuddyer in and giving the Mets the first run of the game.
Leading off the third, Curtis Granderson socked a 2-0 pitch over the right field wall, his second home run of the year. Granderson hasn’t hit for much power this season, slugging .359 on the year. However, he has been picking it up with the bat a bit lately, hitting safely in nine of his last 11 games.
Granderson came through again in the fourth when the Mets loaded the bases (including a deGrom single!) against Jimenez. Granderson lofted one to left-center that was just deep enough to score Plawecki from third, making it 3-0. Jimenez would finish the fourth, but that would be all from him. He really labored through his four innings.
On the mound for the Mets, Jacob deGrom bounced back from two bad starts in a row. As Gary and Ron pointed out in the booth, deGrom got 17 swings and misses tonight, more than twice as many as he got in his last start. He definitely looked more like himself, striking out nine batters while only walking one over seven innings. The only run deGrom allowed was a fifth inning RBI-single to Jimmy Paredes, the only run the Orioles got on the night.
The Mets’ night was capped off when Dilson Herrera hit a long fly ball that bounced off the railing over the left field fence. The hit was originally called a double, but a quick review of the replay by the umpires showed it clearly hit the railing, giving the Mets a 5-1 lead.
From there on, Carlos Torres tossed a scoreless eighth and Terry Collins brought in Alex Torres for the ninth. After Torres allowed a runner on, Collins opted to bring in Jeurys Familia in a non-save situation with the dangerous Steve Pearce coming up to the plate. Collins had reason to worry about Pearce, who hit 21 homers and slugged .556 in 383 plate appearances last season. The call worked out, as Familia struck out Pearce and closed out the 5-1 win for the Mets.
Win probability breakdown
On Deck
The Mets have an off day tomorrow before heading to Philadelphia on Friday night to begin a three-game series with the Phillies. It’ll be a battle of the aces as Matt Harvey (5-0, 2.41ERA, 2.79 FIP, 2.87 xFIP) takes on Cole Hamels (1-3, 4.14 ERA, 5.41 FIP, 3.83 xFIP).
