It seemed like the Mets were going to cruise through the Padres in their first game back. Travis d’Arnaud began the scoring as he singled in Granderson in the top of the first and later scoring on a Juan Lagares single giving the Mets an early 3-0 lead.
After the Mets scored another run in the fourth, everything seemed to be going the Mets’ way as Bartolo Colon was throwing a one hitter through four innings. It was not until the fifth were he hit a road block giving up four runs in the inning and extinguishing the Mets lead.
The teams stayed scoreless until the top of the ninth when after a Curtis Granderson walk, the Padres intentionally walked Lucas Duda after two ground outs moved Grandy over to third. The Padres chose to face d’Arnaud who was 2-for-4 on the night and did he make them pay.
On a 3-2 count d’Arnaud singled in what would be the game winning run. After that the Mets placed the ball in Mejia’s hands for the save.
“I just tried to keep my eye on the ball and put a good swing on it,” d’Arnaud said. “Fortunately, it found a gap.”
“He’s made some adjustments at the plate,” Terry Collins said. “His confidence is soaring. He’s seeing the ball good. His confidence is great. There’s a lot of things going on, and that’s why he’s hitting where he’s hitting.”
It was an odd choice to intentionally walk Duda with two outs especially, when Travis is hitting .308 (20-for-65) since returning from Triple-A.
With the first game of the second half in the books, the Mets gained a half a game in the wild card race, however a win by the Braves holds them at seven games back in the NL East.
It seems that sending D’Arnaud down to the minors really did the trick as he has been everything the Mets could want. With his three hit performance he is now hitting .227 and hopes to continue to bring that number up tomorrow against Padres probable starter Tyson Ross.
