Bo Bichette singled in the free runner and Daniel Duarte pitched a scoreless 10th as the Mets beat the Guardians 6-5 Wednesday in a sloppy defensive game on both sides at Progressive Field.
New York was down to its last out in the ninth when Jorge Polanco doubled, Marcus Semien walked and and A.J. Ewing bounced a ball up the middle that shortstop Brayan Rocchio couldn’t handle, allowing the tying run to score.
Chayce McDermott (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings to earn his first career win. The Mets (49-66) are 9-9 since the All-Star break.
Steven Bisig-Imagn Images
Jared Young botched a routine grounder to first in the seventh with the Mets up 4-3 and it led to two unearned runs off of Dedniel Núñez, who was making his season debut after returning from Tommy John surgery. Núñez allowed back-to-back, two-out RBI singles to Patrick Bailey and Angel Genao.
Ewing took a bad route on a catchable Nathaniel Lowe line drive to left-center in the fourth and it turned into a double and put runners on second and third with nobody out. Travis Bazzana followed with an RBI single off Christian Scott.
Scott gave up three runs on six hits over five innings, struck out seven and walked two. He has struck out 92 in 74 1/3 innings over 16 starts. He entered the game in the 89th percentile for strikeout percentage.
Brett Baty (7) and Jorge Polanco (2) hit back-to-back solo homers in the third off Tanner Bibee, Young added an RBI double in the fourth and Carson Benge (13) homered in the sixth, his second blast in as many nights.
Jefry Yan threw a scoreless inning in an adventurous major-league debut. He struck out his first batter, celebrated with his signature leap, but then gave up two singles and a walk to load the bases. He struck out Chase DeLauter on a check swing and someone from the Guardians bench was ejected arguing the call. He got Jo Adell to ground out to preserve a 4-3 lead.
Stats of the Game
The teams combined for five errors and five unearned runs.
Francisco Lindor went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts, including one with two outs and the bases loaded in the ninth with the game tied at 5.
The Mets hit three homers for the second straight night. Luis Torrens and Bichette joined Benge on Tuesday.
Cleveland’s Genao went 4-for-5 in his MLB debut. He was the the first debuting player to get four hits in Cleveland history, which dates to 1901.
Player of the Game
Polanco went 2-for-4 with the homer and a double. It was his first two-hit game since April 7.
On Deck
The Mets will go for the sweep. Nolan McLean (7-7, 3.29 ERA) will face Foster Griffin (12-3, 3.06 ERA), who will be making his first start for Cleveland after being acquired from the Nationals on Monday. It is a 1:10 p.m. ET start on SNY.
