Neither Justin Verlander nor Yu Darvish were at their best as both struggled with command against a particularly tight strike zone and both gave up runs early. Both bullpens thrived following their departures, paving the way for extra innings in a 3-3 game. It was then that the Mets offense broke out, scoring four runs in the 10th inning to secure their sixth straight win.

It was the Mets who scored first on a weakly-hit but perfectly-placed Daniel Vogelbach infield single in the first inning. The Padres immediately responded, though, as Manny Machado hit an RBI double and later scored on a Luis Guillorme fielding error to give the Padres the lead in the bottom of the inning.

Verlander continued to find himself in trouble, even after surrendering the early lead. He gave up a Trent Grisham RBI double in the second inning to make it a 3-1 game before loading the bases in the third. With one out and Gary Sánchez at the plate, Verlander was able to get him to ground into a double play to avoid a disaster inning.

That double play seemed to reverse his fortunes as he allowed just one baserunner over the next three innings on his way to a quality start, a result that seemed impossible after how he started the game. Through six innings, Verlander allowed just two earned runs on 98 pitches and slightly lowered his season ERA from 3.66 to 3.60.

Darvish, who is usually dominant against the Mets, was unable to hold the 3-1 lead given to him by his offense. Francisco Lindor continued his recent hot stretch by hitting an opposite field homer that just sailed over the left field wall in the third inning and Vogelbach drove in his second run of the night with an RBI single in the fifth to tie the game.

A Ha-Seong Kim double with one out in the seventh appeared to give the Padres a late scoring threat to break the tie, but Tommy Pham played the ball hit by Kim conservatively in left field, prompting Kim to decide to stretch a triple before Pham uncorked a laser to throw him out. Kim’s curious decision to go for three bases wound up costing the Padres as Juan Soto doubled in the next at-bat which would have surely scored Kim, but instead Brooks Raley and Adam Ottavino were able to combine for a scoreless inning.

The game headed to extra innings tied as the Mets failed to score with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth, but they made up for it and more as Jeff McNeil ambushed Tom Cosgrove by doubling down the right field line on the first pitch of the 10th inning to put the Mets ahead. Francisco Álvarez subsequently drove in McNeil before Lindor drove in two, his second and third RBIs of the night, to crack the game wide open and make it 7-3.

A two-run home run by Machado with one out in the bottom of the inning made it a two-run game, but David Robertson fought off the last two batters of the inning to give the Mets a hard-fought and well-deserved win.

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Player of the Game

Álvarez continues to swing a scorching bat, as he went 4-for-5 against San Diego pitchers in this game. Although he didn’t hit any homers like he often does, Álvarez recorded the first four-hit game of his career and drove in the Mets’ second run of the 10th inning to provide some massive insurance en route to the team’s sixth win in a row.

On Deck

The series with the Padres will continue on Saturday night with a 10:10 p.m. ET first pitch. The pitching matchup will see David Peterson (2-6, 6.61 ERA) face off against Blake Snell (5-7, 3.03 ERA), both of whom are pitching some of their best baseball of the season. The game will be broadcast on SNY.

The post Four-Run 10th Leads Mets to Sixth Straight Win, 7-5 Over Padres appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

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It is well documented the New York Mets have never beaten Yu Darvish. Not once. Now, he is taking the mound in Game 1 of the best-of-three Wild Card Series against the New York Mets. Fortunately, the Mets have Max Scherzer, but as we saw in July, that is not always enough.

While the Mets have not beaten Darvish, there are Mets players on this team who have had success against Darvish. Of course, there are some who have not had much. Here is a look at the overall stats in descending OPS order:

• James McCann (11 PA) 4-for-10, 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI, BB 5 K
• Daniel Vogelbach (3 PA) 2-for-3, 2 RBI
• Starling Marte (18 PA) 7-for-17, 2B, HR, 3 RBI, BB 3 K
• Pete Alonso (11 PA) 2-for-10, HR, RBI, 3 K
• Francisco Lindor (19 PA) 5-for-16, 2B, 4 RBI, 2 BB, 5 K
• Tomas Nido (3 PA) 1-for-3, K
• Eduardo Escobar (17 PA) 3-for-17, 2 2B, HR, RBI, 7 K
• Darin Ruf (5 PA) 0-for-2, 2 BB, K
• Jeff McNeil (13 PA) 1-for-11, HR, 2 RBI, BB, 2 K
• Luis Guillorme (6 PA) 1-for-6, 2B, RBI, 2 K
• Mark Canha (4 PA) 1-for-4, K
• Brandon Nimmo (7 PA) 0-for-6, 2 K

Luckily for the Mets, Starling Marte is on the Wild Card roster after missing time with a fractured finger. Marte not only is a big part of this team, but he also hits Darvish. This team needs that against a pitcher this franchise has never beaten.

The obvious caveat with anyone in this lineup, is these are small sample sizes.

The first thing which really stands out at you is the strikeouts. That should not come as a surprise, as Darvish is a pitcher who records a lot of strikeouts. He has the fourth-highest K/9 rate ever among pitchers with at least 1,000 innings. However, there is something beyond those strikeouts.

Like any pitcher, Darvish will make mistakes, and as we see with this lineup, when he makes them, they have capitalized on them. When you have Scherzer on the mound, the Mets may only need for one batter to capitalize on a mistake and drive it out of the ballpark.

So yes, the Mets have never lost to Darvish. However, Darvish has never pitched against the lineup the Mets are going put out there in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series. Seeing this team’s ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark against him, and with Scherzer on the mound, you have to like the Mets chances.

The post How Mets Have Fared Against Yu Darvish appeared first on Metsmerized Online.