The New York Mets (33-26) defeated the Milwaukee Brewers (28-32) by a score of 5-2 on Thursday night at Miller Park.
Offense:
Curtis Granderson got the ball rolling (or rather flying) early with a leadoff home run to right field, his 5th leadoff homer of the season and his 11th overall this season.
With one out in the 3rd inning, Curtis Granderson struck again and doubled off the left field wall. After Michael Conforto flew out to center field, Yoenis Cespedes lined a base hit to score Grandy and give the Mets a 2-0 lead, his second opposite field hit of the day. After a Neil Walker walk put runners on first and second with two outs, James Loney struck out to end the inning.
Asdrubal Cabrera led off the 6th with a base hit, but Wilmer Flores followed it up with a strikeout. Kevin Plawecki walked to set up a sacrifice bunt situation for Bartolo Colon, who got it down to put runners on second and third with two outs. Granderson came up and, despite breaking his bat, lifted a 3-2 pitch to the right field warning track to end the inning.
James Loney led of the 8th inning with a hard base hit to right field. Asdrubal Cabrera walked which brought Wilmer Flores to the dish. He hit a ground ball up the middle on which the shortstop Jonathan Villar made a fantastic diving play to save a run, but Flores was safe at first to load the bases with nobody out. Kevin Plawecki stepped up and worked the count full before knocking a base hit to right field, scoring two. Unfortunately, Wilmer was caught in a run down trying to go first to third for the first out of the inning.
Juan Lagares led off the 9th inning and immediately made his presence known. He hit a ball hard up the middle, on which Aaron Hill tried to make a diving stop. However it was just out of his reach, but he got just enough of it to slow the ball down heading to center field. Lagares, hustling out of the box, motored into second base for the double. Welcome back Number 12!
After a Yoenis Cespedes strikeout, Matt Reynolds pinch hit for Neil Walker (see notes section as to why) knocked a base hit to right field to score Lagares from second, expanding the Mets’ lead to 5-2. James Loney flew out and Asdrubal Cabrera struck out to end the inning.
Pitching:
Bartolo Colon started for the Mets, and with the help of 3 double plays and a pickoff, tossed seven strong innings. In those 7 innings, he allowed one earned run scattering 8 hits while striking out two. He didn’t walk anyone, but you could have guessed that.
Addison Reed came in to pitch the 8th and entered with a 4-1 lead. Also entering was Juan Lagares in center field, what a great sight to see! However, not as great a sight was an Aaron Hill single being followed up by a two-out Scooter Gennett double to score him. This was the first run Reed had given up since May 4th. With Ryan Braun up next, James Loney then made a great stop to end the inning.
Jeurys Familia came in for the save, entering with a 5-2 lead. He started off by striking out Jonathan Lucroy and Chris Carter with knee-buckling sliders for the first two outs, bringing up Kirk Nieuwenhuis. He slapped a grounder to the right of Asdrubal Cabrera who snagged it on the backhand and made a terrific jump-throw to first to end the game. Familia is now a perfect 20-20 in save situations this season.
Notes:
Granderson’s leadoff home run tonight was his 16th as a Met, which ties Jose Reyes for the Mets career lead.
Matt Reynolds pinch-hit for Neil Walker in the 9th, as Walker was removed from the game most likely because of a play in the 7th inning. Walker got in front of a ball which took a bad hop and hit him hard in the chest. He was noticeably in pain, but stayed in the game until he was removed for Reynolds in the 9th. Terry Collins told reporters he had the wind knocked out of him.
Fun Fact, Bartolo Colon has been pitching for so long, he actually faced the Brewers when they were still an American League team in 1997.
On Deck:
The Mets will send Matt Harvey (4-8, 4.95 ERA) to face off against the Brewers’ Junior Guerra (3-1, 3.61 ERA) tomorrow night in Milwaukee at 8:10 pm ET.
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