The Mets (21-16) defeated the Milwaukee Brewers (13-24) by a score of 14-1 Saturday night. Jacob deGrom had perhaps his best stuff all season tonight while Matt Garza had quite the opposite. The reigning NL Rookie of The Year pitched six innings while giving up one run, striking out six and walking one. He is now 4-4 on the year.
DeGrom helped his own cause in the 2nd. After a double by Eric Campbell and a walk drawn by Kevin Plawecki, deGrom slapped a base-hit up the middle and took advantage of the Brewers’ infield playing in. The hit drove in Campbell who was the only runner to score that inning after a 5-4-3 double-play off the bat of Wilmer Flores.
The Mets struck again two innings later. With runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out, Kevin Plawecki grounded the ball to SS Luis Sardinas who fired home attempting to nab Michael Cuddyer trying to score. However, the throw was a bit wide of home plate and he was safe. DeGrom followed with his second base-hit of the game to load the bases for Wilmer Flores who promptly hit a grand-slam over the 370 sign in left-center field. That was his team-leading sixth home run of the year.
The Metropolitans didn’t stop there. Singles from Curtis Granderson and Juan Lagares followed by a walk drawn by Lucas Duda set the stage for Cuddyer who ripped a two-run double down the left-field line. This was the last straw for Craig Counsell and he pulled Garza at this point. His successor didn’t fair better against Daniel Murphy, who laced a two-run double into right-center field. This was his 200th career double. He scored in the next at bat when Campbell lined a base-hit into right field. This inning ended only after scoring ten runs.
DeGrom gave up one earned run in the 6th on a sac-fly off the bat of Ryan Braun that scored Luis Sardinas.
The Brewers manager pulled a NBA-like move in the bottom of the 6th by pulling most of his starters including Carlos Gomez, Ryan Braun, Adam Lind and Aramis Ramirez.
Erik Goeddell pitched two scoreless innings in relief for the Mets. He is definitely one of the more underrated call-ups of the year thus far.
The only Mets starter without a hit got on the board in a big way in the bottom of the seventh. Kevin Plawecki hit his second home run of the year into the left field stands, a no-doubter. AND THAT WASN’T ALL! Curtis Granderson hit a two-run home run later in the inning, his 4th of the year.
Jack Leathersich finished things off for the Mets in the 9th.
TL/DR: The Mets torched Matt Garza.
The Mets will play the rubber game of this series tomorrow at 1:10 p.m. as Noah Syndergaard (0-1) makes his Citi Field debut against Wily Peralta (1-4).
