The New York Mets (60-59) defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks (49-70) by a score of 7-5 at Chase Field Tuesday night.
Pitching:
Noah Syndergaard was on the mound for the Mets tonight and he was on cruise control for most of the night. This was arguably the best Syndergaard has looked in quite some time but he ran into some trouble in the sixth due to some shoddy defense. All in all, Thor went 5.2 innings giving up two earned runs while walking two and striking out eight.
Syndergaard entered the sixth inning tonight with a huge lead and only having allowed one run. Jake Lamb reached first base on a throwing error by T.J. Rivera to kick off the inning. After Yasmany Tomas struck out, Wellington Castillo singled on a line drive to center field to put runners on the corners with one out.
Mitch Haniger tripled, his first ever career hit, to score the lead runners and cut the score to 7-3. After Syndergaard was able to get Chris Owings to pop out, Phil Gosselin reached first base on yet another fielding error by T.J. Rivera, which scored Mitch Haniger and cut the lead to 7-4. Jean Segura then also reached base on yet another questionable throw and catch from T.J. Rivera and James Loney. What a sloppy inning! That was it for Thor on the night. Jerry Blevins luckily came in and cleaned up the mess, recording the final out.
Hansel Robles came on in the top of the seventh inning and he was shaky. With runners on first and second and two out, Terry Collins decided to go to Addison Reed to try to record the final out. Mitch Haniger hurt the Mets again by smacking a line drive down the left-field line to cut the score to 7-5.
Addison Reed came back on in the top of the eighth and worked the Mets through a successful scoreless inning.
Jeurys Familia was able to shut the door in the ninth and record his 40th save of the year.
Offense:
The Mets got things started in the top of the fifth inning tonight. T.J. Rivera kicked things off with a single to right field. Alejandro De Aza followed with a double to put runners on second and third with nobody out. Rene Rivera then followed with a sacrifice fly to get the Mets on the board and tie the game 1-1. Noah Syndergaard was next and dropped his hammer on the D-Backs by blasting his third home run of the year to right-center field to give the Mets the 3-1 lead. The Mets weren’t done yet as Jose Reyes tripled to left fielder Mitch Haniger. Curtis Granderson brought Reyes home on a sacrifice fly to make the score 4-1.
In the top of the sixth inning, Kelly Johnson lead-off the inning with his 8th home run of the season to make the score 5-1. T.J. Rivera followed with a single and advanced on a throwing error by Michael Bourn. Alejandro De Aza then doubled home Rivera and also took an extra base on a throwing error, this time by Yosmany Tomas to make the score 6-1. After Rene Rivera and Noah Syndergaard struck out with the runner on third, Jose Reyes was able to pick up his teammates by singling home De Aza to make the score 7-4.
Notes:
Asdrubal Cabrera went 1-3 with a double and a run scored tonight on a rehab assignment for St. Lucie.
Yoenis Cespedes went 0-3 in left field tonight also on a rehab assignment for St. Lucie.
JZ Player of the game: Noah Syndergaard. Although he ran into some trouble in the sixth inning, this was a much better effort and of course he crushed a two-run home run as well!
On Deck:
The Mets will play the rubber game of a three-game set with the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field tomorrow night. The game has a start time of 9:40 PM. Jonathon Niese (8-6, 5.20 ERA) looks to keep the Mets rolling against Zack Godley (3-2, 5.24 ERA). This will be Niese’s first start this season for the Mets after Logan Verrett was removed from the rotation.
