Terry Collins‘ dubious decision to rest his veterans and go with his Replace-Mets in the heat of a pennant chase paid some dividends as the New York Mets completed a three-game sweep over the Minnesota Twins with a 3-2 win at Citi Field on Sunday.
New York now sits in the Wild Card driver’s seat with a one game lead over the not so gigantic San Francisco Giants.
Rookie right-hander Gabriel Ynoa, filling in for a grim Jacob deGrom, struck out eight in 4 2/3 solid innings of one run, one hit ball in his first major league start.
The Mets’ roughed up pitching rotation was dealt another blow on Friday with the news that deGrom will miss the rest of the season with an elbow injury.
But, the resilient crew from Queens, who are also without the services of the ailing Steven Matz, keeps beating the odds and pulling rabbits out of their caps. It’s pretty amazing when you stop and think about it, and it has been one of the best storylines of pretty remarkable season.
Michael Conforto recovered from Saturday’s bases loaded whiff with a first inning two-run single with the bases juiced to give the Mets a lead they never relinquished. Conforto had himself a 2-for-4 day while hitting in the cleanup spot, which will hopefully boost the confidence he’s been lacking.
It was another head-scratcher by Terry Collins that paid off handsomely for the Mets. It’s been one of many such “brilliantly quirky moves” as pointed out by Joe D. on Friday.
After breezing through the order in the top of the first, Ynoa ran into a bases loaded debacle in the second, leaving the mound in better shape than counterpart Kyle Gibson, surrendering only one run on a Ryan Murphy sac fly.
Collins made what seemed like another of his questionable moves when he replaced Ynoa in the fourth after giving up a two out single to Brian Dozier. After Josh Edgin gave up a bloop hit he was given the hook for Erik Goeddel who then loaded the bases with a walk.
I could feel the fans disdain for Collins through my television screen, but Goedell got Kennys Vargas swinging to end the inning, and another episode of manager knows best prevailed.
Mets Bronx Bomber T.J. Rivera then continued his torrid plate appearances with a solo shot in the third for an insurance run that meant something when Kennys Vargas cut the lead to 3-2 with a home run off Fernando Salas in the top of the eighth.
Jerry Blevins gave Jeurys Familia some much-needed rest, recording the final four outs, including a game ending strikeout in the dirt to the dominant left-hand hitting Brian Dozier, who came to the plate with two out in the ninth. The crowd went wild and so did I.
Both Rivera and Conforto stepped up big while filling the cleats of Jose Reyes and the red hot Curtis Granderson, collecting two big hits each and providing the type of offense that will be needed by the Mets down the stretch.
Their remaining schedule on paper predicts a favorable outcome, but this won’t be a walk in the park as Mets face the pesky Atlanta Braves, who have given them all sorts of problems. However, the Mets are one of the hottest teams in the NL, winning 11 of their last 14 and they are 20-7 over their last 27 games. That’s a lot of momentum.
