The Mets (22-16) beat the Brewers (13-25) by a score of 5-1 on Sunday afternoon in the rubber game of their three-game set at Citi Field.
Noah Syndergaard shined in his second MLB start, allowing three hits, a walk, and a hit batsman in six innings of one-run ball.
After the rookie struck out two in the top of the first inning, he got some immediate support from a veteran in the home half when leadoff hitter Curtis Granderson took Wily Peralta deep. The Mets threatened to do further damage thanks to a double from Lucas Duda and an error by Aramis Ramirez, but Peralta escaped with just the one run on his ledger.
At the plate in the bottom of the second, Thor hammered one deep to the gap in right-center, but Carlos Gomez flagged it down to deny Syndergaard his first MLB hit.
New York added a second run in the bottom of the third when Eric Campbell and Duda hit back-to-back doubles. In the bottom of the fourth, a leadoff walk from Johnny Monell, a base-hit from Juan Lagares, and a single from Campbell brought in the third Met run before Duda walked and Michael Cuddyer gave the Mets some major breathing room with a two-run single that made it a 5-0 game.
Syndergaard stumbled a bit in the top of the sixth. Luis Sardinas led off the inning with a single, and with Carlos Gomez at the plate, Syndergaard ran one up and in at 97 miles-per-hour which hit the former Met squarely in the head (fortunately catching him on the helmet rather than the face). Gomez left the game, walking off the field under his own power after a delay.
Noah bounced back to strike out Khris Davis, but Ryan Braun (screw that guy, by the way) broke up the shutout with an opposite-field single which scored Sardinas. Syndergaard escaped the inning without further damage to finish his outing.
Sean Gilmartin, Carlos Torres, and Hansel Robles bridged the gap to the ninth inning, when Terry Collins decided to get Jeurys Familia some work. Familia pitched a 1-2-3 inning, taking the final ball of the game off his shin but recovering to chase it down and fire it to first, wrapping up Syndergaard’s first MLB win.
Syndergaard was awesome in his Citi Field debut. He had much better command (95 pitches, 67 strikes) than his first time out, so the hitters were forced to hit his stuff, which seems pretty hard to do. His fastball doesn’t run too much, but he’ll still get some strikeouts with that pitch at 97+ MPH. The curveball is great, and while the changeup needs work, the fact that he HAS it gives the hitters another pitch to think about (making the other two that much harder to hit). Thank you, RA Dickey and Mike Nickeas. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
After waking up and destroying the entire village on Saturday, the sleeping dragon that had been the Mets’ offense came back for more today. 5 runs isn’t an explosion, but it’s a very solid showing, and certainly more than enough for the Mets to win far more often than not with their pitching.
Granderson has been coming alive lately. He was drawing a ton of walks early, but despite what Little League coaches always said (to the kids who couldn’t hit), a walk isn’t always as good as a hit. So it’s nice to see him hitting the ball hard, and, as of late, over the wall.
Duda isn’t hitting home runs right now, but that’s OK. He’s getting his knocks, and with all of these doubles, he’s getting his fair share of extra-base hits anyway. He didn’t start hitting HR’s until pretty late last season and he ended up with 30, so there’s still more than enough time for him to put up an impressive number in that column, anyway.
Cuddyer had big hits in each of the last two games. Hopefully his slump is coming to an end.
Syndergaard’s (near) hit was AWESOME. But can these pitchers learn to bunt already? This is the NL.
A ball went over Juan Lagares’ head today. Pete Rose probably lost a lot of money on that one.
As I’ve said before, it’s about winning series. The set with the Cubs was lousy, and they really needed this one. They made it tough with the blowout loss on Friday, but they bounced back and got it done. Milwaukee is a pretty horrible team, though. We have a much bigger challenge on deck.
Up Next: The Mets will begin a 4-game series with the Cardinals on Monday night at Citi Field. Matt Harvey (5-1, 2.31 ERA) will face John Lackey (2-2, 3.22) at 7:10 PM. (With me in attendance!)
