Bullpen Stays Hot in Fourth-Straight Mets Win

The Mets are officially making it work.

Following Friday’s drama-filled walk-off victory, Saturday’s contest could have easily been an emotional letdown. Instead, the bullpen took over, pitching 5.2 stellar innings around Joey Lucchesi in a 4-2 home win over the Diamondbacks. Jeff McNeil homered and scored twice, while Francisco Lindor scored once and drove in a run.

The win was the fourth in a row for the Mets, keeping pace with the equally hot first-place Phillies.

Manager Luis Rojas opted for an opener in the form of Tommy Hunter. The well-traveled righty threw two scoreless innings for the second night in a row, with only one Diamondback reaching base via catcher’s interference.

Mets hitters drew 18 combined walks over the last two games and continued their patience at the plate early. Michael Conforto and Jonathan Villar each earned a free pass with two outs in the first and second innings, respectively, but neither inning made it past the next batter.

Lucchesi took over in the third looking to improve upon his eye sore of a 10.13 ERA. The southpaw was greeted warmly by center fielder Kevin Pillar, who made a face-first, diving catch on Tim Locastro’s soft fly ball. A borderline ball four call and Josh Rojas’s second catcher’s interference on the game made Lucchesi work harder than he would’ve liked, but Christian Walker was caught looking at a sinker to end the threat.

Saturday marks just the second time in Met history, and first since 1976, that they were called for catcher’s interference twice in the same game.

After Lucchesi drew a five-pitch walk to lead off the bottom half of the inning, McNeil sent a Merrill Kelly fastball over the right center field wall to give the Mets an early 2-0 lead. Score one for the racoon. Francisco Lindor followed up with a walk and eventually came all the way around to score on a stolen base attempt when the throw caromed off his foot and rolled into shallow left field. Point, rat.

Pillar apparently didn’t get the memo that he’s regressed defensively as a center fielder, as he made another beautiful sliding catch to rob former Met Asdrubal Cabrera in the top half of the fourth. Pillar followed that up by smoking a double down the left field line in the bottom half of the inning, but after Jonathan Villar moved him over with a groundout, James McCann and Lucchesi each struck out looking to leave him stranded.

The suddenly-streaking Lindor doubled to deep center in the fifth, but he too was left on third base on Alonso’s inning-ending flyout to center. The Mets only had four hits in the contest, with McNeil and Lindor accounting for three of them.

Rojas led off the sixth with the Diamondbacks’ first hit off the game. He scored on David Peralta’s RBI groundout, snapping Met pitchers’ scoreless streak at 13 innings. Lucchesi exited with a final line of 3.1 innings, two hits, one unearned run and two strikeouts. Jeurys Familia entered with one out and a man on second and struck out Cabrera and Eduardo Escobar to end the inning.

After two quick outs in the seventh, the Diamondbacks loaded the bases on two infield singles and a bloop into right. Familia was able to coax a 3-2 groundball from Walker that Lindor bobbled and fired high, but was bailed out by a nice grab from Alonso.

McNeil led off the bottom of the frame with a single, stole second and was driven in on Lindor’s bloop into center. Kumbaya.

Aaron Loup allowed his first earned run of the season on a Stephen Vogt single, but stranded runners on the corners to preserve a 4-2 lead midway through the eighth.

In the ninth, homeplate umpire Jeff Nelson made his best case for robot umps, somehow missing a strike three call directly down the middle of the plate that even had the batter, Rojas, walking off the field before reversing course. Trevor May, filling in for Edwin Diaz, who pitched the last two days, worked around a leadoff single to lock down the save.

Jacob deGrom will be on the hill Sunday for a Mother’s Day matinee looking to clinch the series sweep against Arizona’s Riley Smith. It’ll be deGrom’s first start since April 28 after dealing with lat soreness earlier in the week. Catch the action at 1:10 on SNY.