The New York Mets (23-27) defeated the Milwaukee Brewers (27-25) in extra innings by a score of 5-4 at Citi Field Tuesday evening.
Pitching:
Tyler Pill made his first career start tonight and dazzled. Pill made it into the sixth inning, allowing only one run against a hot-hitting Brewers team.
All in all, Pill went 5 1/3 innings allowing one run, while walking three and striking out four.
In the top of the first inning, Pill ran into a little bit of trouble. He plunked Keon Broxton and issued a single to Eric Thames to put runners on first and second with nobody out before getting Hernan Perez to roll into a double play.
However, Travis Shaw followed with a double to score the first run of the game and give the Brewers the early 1-0 lead.
That would be all the damage inflicted against Pill. The rookie right-hander showed great command working both sides of the plate and giving the Mets exactly what they needed in an effort to keep their current winning streak alive.
Fernando Salas was able to finish out the inning for Pill in the sixth but he didn’t do as well in the seventh.
Salas loaded the bases with one out before Terry Collins handed the game over to Jerry Blevins. Blevins was able to strikeout Shaw and record the second out, but walked in a run to cut the Mets lead to 4-2.
Blevins was able to induce a routine popup from Jett Brandy, but Asdrubal Cabrera inexplicably dropped the ball allowing two more runs to score and blowing the win for Pill in the process.
Josh Edgin and Addison Reed were each able to pitch a scoreless inning in the eighth and ninth innings.
Josh Smoker would get the call in the top of the tenth and subsequently put in three innings of work tonight.
Although he ran into a bit of trouble at times, he was able to pitch three scoreless innings, recording four strikeouts.
Offense:
It took the Mets until the bottom of the fifth inning before they were able to break through against Zach Davies.
Curtis Granderson and Cabrera started off the inning with back-to-back doubles to tie the game at 1-1.
Travis d’Arnaud followed with a single to put runners on the corners with nobody out. After a fly out from Pill, Michael Conforto and Jose Reyes were able to coax walks to bring in the go-ahead run and giving the Mets a 2-1 lead.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Neil Walker started off the inning with his 13th double of the season. Lucas Duda followed by crushing his eighth home run of the season to put the Mets up 4-1.
In the bottom of the twelfth inning, T.J. Rivera got the Mets going with a lead-off single. Conforto was able to draw a walk to put runners on first and second with nobody out.
Jose Reyes followed with a ground out that forced a runner to third base. Jay Bruce brought him home by lacing a single into center field to send the Mets home happy with the win.
Notes:
Bruce now has three walk-off hits against the Brewers
Salas got his first major league career hit during a pinch-hitting opportunity in the bottom of the sixth.
JZ Player of the Game: Tyler Pill. Great debut in his first starting opportunity. Honorable mention goes to Josh Smoker for getting the Mets through three tough innings in extras.
On Deck:
The Mets will play their third game of a four-game set with the Milwaukee Brewers at Citi Field tomorrow evening. The game has a start time of 7:10 p.m. Jacob deGrom (4-1, 3.23 ERA), will look to keep the Mets rolling against Junior Guerra (0-0, 3.12 ERA).
