A tremendous effort by Noah Syndergaard, a resilient performance by an exhausted bullpen, and some very timely hitting, capped off with a Wilmer Flores walk-off single, propelled the Mets (35-30) to a 4-3 win against the Blue Jays (34-31) tonight in 11 innings.
Syndergaard, coming off two sub-par outings, toed the rubber for the Mets and was dominant. The only blemish for him tonight was a first-inning home run by Jose Bautista, which gave the Blue Jays the early 1-0 lead. After allowing another hit later in the inning, Syndergaard held the Blue Jays hitless for five more innings, racking up strikeouts on the way. When Syndergaard was removed from the game after six innings and 109 pitches, he had fanned 11 Blue Jays, the most strikeout he has recorded in any professional game.
Syndergaard left the mound after the top of the sixth in line for a loss, but his teammates picked him up to take the lead. Kevin Plawecki was safe at first on a throwing error by Jose Reyes to lead off the inning. Syndergaard then helped his own cause, sacrificing Plawecki into scoring position.
Then it was Juan Lagares knocking a double to left, scoring Plawecki and tying the game. The next batter, Ruben Tejada, got a hold of one and hit a rope to right field, which was badly misplayed by Bautista. Attempting to fake catching the ball to hold Lagares at second, he let the ball go by him, putting the Mets up 2-1.
Then Terry Collins was forced to turn to his exhausted, overworked bullpen. Carlos Torres made quick work of the Blue Jays in the seventh. Jack Leathersich took the mound in the eighth, allowing a one-out walk and then a fielder’s choice, leaving Jose Reyes on first with two outs. Collins then opted to, for the second day in a row, go to Jeurys Familia for the four-out save. Familia struck out Josh Donaldson on three pitches to end the eighth.
The ninth, however, was a different story. Jose Bautista led off the inning for the Blue Jays, and immediately hit a line drive home run over the left field wall, tying the game and giving Familia his second blown save of the year.
The Mets went down quietly in the bottom of the ninth, bringing the game to extra innings. Collins opted to go with Hansel Robles to pitch the tenth, his third outing in three days. He had an uneventful tenth inning (as did the Mets offense) but gave up a run in the 11th off a Dioner Navarro sacrifice fly. Robles was able to limit the Blue Jays to just that one run, but it was not looking good with the Blue Jays bringing in their closer Brett Cecil.
Ruben Tejada drew a one out walk in the bottom of the inning, bringing Michael Cuddyer to the plate. Cuddyer dribbled a ball to second base which could have been an easy double play but Tejada drew the tag, allowing Cuddyer to reach first safely. However, that left two outs in the inning with just a runner on first. Cecil worked Lucas Duda to a two-strike count but he was able to fight of a fly ball to left field. With the outfield playing for the pull, Cuddyer scored from first base and Duda advanced to second.
The Blue Jays brought in Liam Hendriks to face Wilmer Flores, but Flores grounded the first pitch from him up the middle, scoring Duda to win the game. The hit was Flores’ second walk-off hit of the season and the Mets’ 17th come-from-behind, second in the majors. Don’t look now, but they’ve won four of their last five games.
Win Probability Breakdown
Up Next
The Mets play the Blue Jays in the second game of this series tomorrow night as Matt Harvey (6-4, 3.62 ERA) faces off against Scott Copeland (1-0, 0.90 ERA).
