Mandatory Credit: John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports
The New York Mets (59-59) gave Rich Hill the ball for the fifth time this season as they opened a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants (77-42) on Monday night at Oracle Park.
After being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Mets needed to get back into the win column, but had the difficulty of facing the best team in baseball.
In his previous four outings for the Mets, Hill has not provided them with stellar pitching and length, as he came into the game with a 5.00 ERA and 1.333 WHIP in 18 innings.
In this game, the southpaw began his outing against the Giants strong. He struck out Austin Slater on three-straight four-seam fastballs to start things off.
Hill stuck with his fastball against Kris Bryant who he got to line out to center field on four pitches. He then mixed a couple of fastballs and a couple of changeups against Buster Posey to get him to ground out to second base.
After not utilizing his signature curveball in the first inning, Hill began the second with a curve to Darin Ruf that was high and outside. He then got Ruf to fly out to right field a pitch later with an 87.4 mph fastball down the middle.
Hill followed up the fly out with a five-pitch strikeout of Evan Longoria. His hitless streak ended at five however, as Brandon Crawford hit one of Hill’s curveballs to right field for a single. Hill got out of the inning a batter later as he got Wilmer Flores to fly out to center field on four pitches.
The third inning was another strong inning for Hill. He turned in a 1-2-3 inning on 17 pitches by getting Donovan Solano to fly out, Kevin Gausman to ground out, and Slater to fly out. Hill had his curveball working well in the inning, as all three Giants got out on one of his low-70 mph curves.
Hill began the fourth inning by getting Bryant to fly out to center field on six pitches. However, the wheels came off for the 41-year-old from there.
Posey smacked an 87.7 mph fastball from Hill to center field for a double. Posey then came around to score as Ruf singled on a line drive to left field.
Hill got a gift out as Ruf was tagged out trying to get back to first base. Ruf was originally declared safe, but the call was challenged and overturned as he actually stepped on Pete Alonso‘s foot and not the bag while he was tagged.
One pitch later, Longoria singled to right field on a 71.7 mph curveball. Crawford was also able to hit a single to right field on one of Hill’s curveballs to give the Giants runners at first and second with two outs.
Flores fought off multiple pitches before hitting the eighth pitch in his at-bat to right field for an RBI single. After Flores gave the Giants a 2-0 lead, Hill was pulled in favor of Miguel Castro who got out of the inning five pitches later.
Castro would go on to give up two runs himself and the Mets would go on to lose 7-5.
As for Hill, he struck out two Giants and allowed two runs on six hits over 3 2/3 innings. It was Hill’s seventh-straight start in which he has gone five innings or less.
