The New York Mets (57-54) defeated the Detroit Tigers (61-50) by a score of 3-1 at Comerica Park Sunday afternoon. With the win, the Mets will temporarily move to 8.5 games back of the Washington Nationals for the division lead.
Pitching:
Jacob deGrom was on the mound for the Mets today and he was in vintage deGrom form. deGrom took a shutout into the seventh inning before finally running into trouble. All in all, deGrom went 6.2 innings giving up one run, walking two, and striking out three.
Everything was smooth sailing for deGrom until the bottom of the seventh inning. With the game still scoreless, deGrom got J.D. Martinez to fly out to Curtis Granderson and record the first out. Justin Upton followed by singling on a line drive to left fielder Michael Conforto. After getting Casey McGehee to also fly out to Granderson, deGrom walked James McCann to put runners on first and second with two out. He was then able to get Andrew Romine to hit a small dribbler to third base but the ball was hit too slow and all the runners were safe.
With the bases loaded, Terry Collins decided to go to Jerry Blevins. This then allowed the Tigers to go to Ian Kinsler. Kinsler singled to tie the game on a dribbler that went just passed the outreached arm of Blevins. Addison Reed was then brought in and he quickly recorded the final out of the inning.
Addison Reed came on for the Mets in the bottom of the eighth inning again. Reed pitched a scoreless inning although the Tigers made things interesting. Justin Upton ran the Tigers out of the inning with some poor base running on a flair to right field.
Jeurys Familia came on in the bottom of the ninth inning and pitched a scoreless inning, his 39th save of the year.
Offense:
Anibal Sanchez, who came into today’s game with a 6.26 ERA, baffled the Mets hitters all day.
It wasn’t until the top of the seventh inning that the Mets offense was finally able to break through. With two out, Michael Conforto hit his 11th home run of the season over the left-center field wall to give the Mets a 1-0 lead.
In the top of the ninth inning, and the score knotted at 1-1, Francisco Rodriguez hit Alejandro De Aza to put a runner on first base. Neil Walker, who has been red hot lately, crushed his 19th home run of the year over the right-center field wall to give the Mets a 3-1 lead.
Notes:
Jacob deGrom now has a 0.76 ERA in his last five no-decisions.
Alejandro De Aza was hit by a pitch in the top of the ninth inning in his wrist. Although it looked very painful, he stayed in the game but after the game the Mets have sent him for x-rays.
K-Rod allowed 5 of his last 10 batters to reach base this series.
JZ Player of the game: Jacob deGrom. On a day that that Mets had to have an ace-like performance, deGrom delivered.
On Deck:
The Mets will open a three-game set with the Arizona Diamondbacks at Citi Field Tuesday evening. The game has a start time of 7:10 PM. Steven Matz (8-8, 3.63 ERA) looks to keep the Mets rolling against Zack Greinke (10-3, 3.62 ERA). Greinke is returning from the disabled list and hasn’t pitched since June 28th.
