The Mets (29-23) beat the Padres (25-28) 7-0 on Monday night in San Diego, moving back into a tie for first place.
The Mets’ bats weren’t scared off by the 10 PM start time, getting off to a fast start in the opener of their West Coast swing. New York plated two in the top of the first when Ruben Tejada doubled, Daniel Murphy and Wilmer Flores singled, and Will Middlebrooks made a throwing error. After Padres hurler Andrew Cashner struck out the side in the second (he fanned 12 in just 4.2 innings), the Mets threatened but failed to add on in the third (squandering two more hits from Ruben and Murph) and the fourth (squandering a triple from Juan Lagares.
New York provided some breathing room in the fifth, when Tejada singled and Murphy homered to make it 4-0 before a double from Michael Cuddyer, a single and a steal from Darrell Ceciliani, and a base-hit from Juan put the Mets up 6-0 and chased Cashner. The visitors would score one more time in the sixth on a double by Murphy and a single from Flores.
Jacob deGrom, pitching on the third anniversary of Johan Santana‘s no-hitter, turned in a gem. Jacob was perfect through five and was on cruise control all-night. The righty tossed eight scoreless innings, striking out eight and walking none while allowing just two hits. DeGrom appeared to suffer some hip discomfort in the fifth inning, but seemingly shook it off and kept on going. He did not allow a baserunner until the sixth.
Sean Gilmartin, pitching in a 7-0 romp for the second straight time, closed things out easily to snap the Mets’ 7-game losing streak on the road and wrap up deGrom’s sixth win of the campaign.
That was a nice start to the series. An easy, convincing win in which they had the lead from the get-go. The Mets looked bad on the road against Chicago and Pittsburgh, and West Coast trips can be big for a team’s momentum, so it would be big for them to get some wins this week.
DeGrom was absolutely terrific once again. This team has some serious pitching.
The Mets are striking out too much at the plate. But hey, you can’t complain about seven runs. Ruben Tejada has been raking lately, and Daniel Murphy has really turned his season around. Michael Cuddyer is coming around as well, and Juan Lagares had two nice hits today in his quest to escape his slump. Wilmer has been getting things done as well. And this all came without our hottest hitter— Lucas Duda was on the bench tonight. To top things off, Sandy Alderson told me he expects to add another All-Star bat at the deadline, but I think he was referring to the team getting David Wright back.
Speaking of the Captain, he’s expected to visit the team tomorrow as they continue their San Diego set. Let’s see if the team can treat him to another victory.
Up next: The Mets will face the Padres again on Tuesday at 10:10 PM. Noah Syndergaard (2-2, 1.82 ERA) will face Ian Kennedy (2-5, 7.15 ERA) at PETCO Park.
