Dillon Gee and the Mets made their one-day stop in Minnesota today to settle some unfinished business, and the outcome was a good one to say the least.
The Mets struck first against Twins’ starter Kyle Gibson. Eric Young Jr. led off the game with a single, and after subsequent singles by Daniel Murphy, Ike Davis and Andrew Brown, the Amazins held a 1-0 lead.
The Twins may have threatened in the bottom of the frame, if not for an incredible leaping catch (the first of a few) by magic man Juan Lagares.
The Mets struck again in the second, after another hit parade led to Young’s single which scored Lagares and brought the score to 2-0 after two.
After a quiet third, the Mets decided to knock Gibson around some more. After they loaded the bases without surrendering an out, Omar Quintanilla made up for a prior base-running mistake by smacking a single and bringing home Travis d’Arnaud. Evan after an unfortunate line-out double play hit by Young, Murph’ continued the scoring by smacking a line drive single to make the score 4-0. That would be it for Gibson. His final line: 3.2 IP, 10H, 4ER, 2BB, 2K.
Gee ran into some trouble in the sixth when he faced runners on the corners with one out. However, an amazing double play turned by Davis and Quintanilla extinguished the threat.
The silence continued until the seventh, when with two outs Wilmer Flores punched the ball to right field to score Marlon Byrd, giving the Mets a solid 5-0 lead. d’Arnaud would strike out to end the threat.
The only run surrendered by Gee was unearned on the shoulders of Murphy, who made his second error of the day on a very routine backhand ground ball. Gee bore down though, and induced Pedro Florimon to fly out to Lagares in center. Gee lasted two more outs in the eighth, and was pulled for Scott Rice. Gee had a hell of a day:
7.2 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K
Pulling him with one out in the eighth really didn’t make much sense to me (I don’t think anyone really felt the game was in danger). However, Rice got his job done and the eighth was over.
Gee has been on fire for the past two months. Since June 29th, he’s 4-1 with a 2.35 ERA and 41 strikeouts.
The smackdown continued in the ninth, when renaissance man Marlon Byrd crushed a solo homer to left field to change the scoreboard for the final time: 6-1.
Scott Atchison tossed a scoreless ninth, and the Mets snagged their 57th win of the year.
The Mets come home to face the Braves tomorrow at 7:10. Zack Wheeler (5-2, 3.43 ERA) will face Brandon Beachy (2-0, 4.50 ERA).
OFFICIAL KINERISM UPDATE: "Two-thirds of the earth is covered by water. The other third is covered by Juan Lagares."
— Metsmerized – Joe D (@MetsmerizedJoeD) August 19, 2013
