The New York Mets (36-29) defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates (33-33) by a score of 6-4 Thursday night at Citi Field to take the series two games to one.
Pitching:
Bartolo Colon started for the Mets and was fantastic, tossing 7.2 innings, the only blemish being a two-run home run off the bat of Matt Joyce in the 8th inning. He threw 99 pitches, allowing 2 earned runs on 7 hits while striking out 8. His ERA now sits at 3.01 for the season.
Jerry Blevins came in to face Gregory Polanco with two outs in the 8th and got a flyout to end the inning.
Addison Reed came in to pitch the 9th with a 6-2 lead, but was greeted by former MVP Andrew McCutchen who tattooed a ball over the left field wall, trimming the Mets lead to 6-3. Jung Ho Kang followed that up with a double in the left-center gap, which was enough reason for Terry to yank him from the mound and replace him with Jeurys Familia.
With Kang on second and nobody out, David Freese slapped a ball back at La Familia, who fielded it cleanly, looked the runner back, and tossed it to first for the first out. Matt Joyce then crushed a long fly ball off the right field wall just out of the reach of Granderson. Kang had been tagging up so he only got to third base and Joyce jogged into second with a double.
John Jaso then grounded out to second for the second out of the inning, however a run scored, trimming the Mets’ lead to 6-4 (the run was charged to Addison Reed). With a runner on third two outs, Eric Kratz flew out to right field to end the game.
Offense:
After an offensive barrage last night, Curtis Granderson started tonight’s with a lead off home run in the bottom of the first inning.
The third inning was quite eventful. Big Sexy laced a double to the right-center field gap to lead off the inning. Grandy then singled to center field, putting runners on first and third with nobody out. After Asdrubal Cabrera struck out, Yoenis Cespedes knocked in Bartolo Colon with a sac fly to right.
The Mets weren’t done that inning, though, as Neil Walker crushed a home run to right-center, scoring Granderson. Michael Conforto followed that up on the very next pitch with a solo shot of his own. When all was said and done in the 3rd inning, the Mets were leading 5-0.
In the fourth inning, Wilmer Flores was hit in the hand by a pitch and was forced to leave the game.
The Mets continued hitting in the 5th, with Asdrubal Cabrera leading off with a double. After Yoenis Cespedes moved him over to third with a broken bat groundout, Neil Walker doubled off the facing of the left field wall to score Cabrera and extend the Mets lead to 6-0. Michael Conforto singled to move Walker to third, but the Mets were unable to score any more runs this inning.
The Mets made some noise again in the 8th inning, but with runners on second and third and two outs, Granderson was robbed of a few RBIs by an ugly but fantastic catch by the Pirates’ left fielder Matt Joyce.
Notes:
No break was detected in Wilmer Flores‘s hand, only a contusion after being hit by a pitch.
Juan Lagares was put on the DL, Wilmer Flores left the game, David Wright had surgery, and I found out I tore my ACL again. What a day.
Verizon Trivia Question: Which three players have played the most games as a Met all time? David Wright, Howard Johnson, Wayne Garrett
This was Jeurys Familia‘s 38th straight regular season save, 22nd this season.
Bartolo Colon now has 2,293 career strikeouts, tying him with Dwight Gooden for 49th all time.
On Deck:
The Dark Knight returns to the mound tomorrow night at 7:10 @ Citi Field as Matt Harvey (4-8, 4.66 ERA) faces off against the Braves’ John Gant (0-1, 5.63 ERA).
