So the month of April has officially ended and with that, the team now enters the month of May with a 14-13 record, trailing the Philadelphia Phillies by only one game in the NL East.
In this article, the goal is to honor some of the great moments of the team’s first month of the 2019 season with some videos to give us all a little reminder of the special moments thus far.
While Pete Alonso‘s walk-off certainly qualifies for the list, it was not included in this article merely because of the fact that last night’s victory is very much still in everyone’s memory and there is another very well written article on Alonso that includes that highlight written by Marshall Field.
Furthermore, while the list below will be numbered, none of these top moments will be listed in order. So here are the top five moments of April in my opinion.
1. Wheeler Delivers on Both Sides of the Ball
On April 23, the Mets were playing their second game of a three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citi Field after winning the first game the day prior.
Zack Wheeler was on the mound and came into the game with a 6.35 ERA, which was certainly less than inspiring.
However, that night would turn out to be possibly the best performance of his entire career, and not just because of his pitching.
The left-handed hitting pitcher would come up to the plate in the second inning of the game and hit an RBI double to right field to drive in Luis Guillorme and Wilson Ramos to put the Mets up 2-0 early. He would later score on an error.
In his next at-bat, he would do something for the first time in his MLB career: hit a home run. That put the team up 4-0 and the team wouldn’t stop there as they would score another five runs the remainder of the game.
Meanwhile, Wheeler was also dealing on the mound as he pitched seven shutout innings while striking out 11 batters Wheeler surrendered only five hits and no walks over the course of his 105 pitch outing. At one point, the right-hander struck out five straight batters with J.T. Realmuto, Bryce Harper, and Rhys Hoskins among the casualties.
2. Mets Go on a Power Surge
This next moment was arguably the craziest game of the entire month as Steven Matz took the hill and threw five shutout innings. The team had a 1-0 lead at that point as J.D. Davis hit his first home run in a Mets uniform off of Patrick Corbin.
However, the bullpen was not going to have a great game at all, as Robert Gsellman would allow a double to Anthony Rendon that he would score on later in the sixth inning to tie the game.
That being said, the Mets would regain the lead in the bottom of the inning as Davis would hit his second solo home run of the day, which would be the first multi-homer game of his career. Two batters later, Michael Conforto would also chime in, extending the Mets lead to 3-1.
Justin Wilson entered the game for the seventh inning and would allow one hit and one walk, but after recording two outs, the left-hander would be replaced by Jeurys Familia.
Coming into the game, Familia had not allowed a single run all season, but that would all change today. While this run would not be charged to him, the Nationals would score a run in the seventh inning on a passed ball by Wilson Ramos to cut the lead to 3-2.
In the eighth inning, Jeurys Familia would give up a game-tying homer to Anthony Rendon and would allow a single to Juan Soto afterward.
Three batters later, Wilmer Difo would come to the plate and hit a two-run homer off of Familia to put the Nationals up 5-3 and give them their first lead of the day.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Nationals would put Justin Miller in the game which would prove to be a pivotal mistake.
Pete Alonso would crush a 2-1 pitch to dead-center field to cut the Nationals lead in half. Up next was Robinson Cano who, on a 3-2 pitch, would absolutely demolish Miller’s pitch all the way to the Shea Bridge in right-center field and just like that the game was tied.
With two outs now and Michael Conforto up, the Nationals would decide to turn to their lefty-specialist, Tony Sipp. He would promptly allow a double to Conforto to put a runner on second base with two outs.
Jeff McNeil would come in to pinch-hit and would get hit by a pitch, which is now apparently a thing of regularity for him.
The next batter would be Keon Broxton who would take a 2-2 curveball to center field for an RBI single that would drop right in front of Victor Robles and give the Mets a 6-5 lead that they would hold onto as Edwin Diaz recorded his fourth save of the season.
3. Alonso Has First Multi-Home Run Game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz-H3q9Je7g
This will be the only highlight reel that the team did not actually win on, but it was noteworthy, to say the least, as Pete Alonso would continue his month of firsts against the Minnesota Twins.
In the seventh inning, Alonso would come up to the plate 0-for-3 in the game with two strikeouts and this game seemed like one of those early growing pains for a rookie.
However, he would take a 2-1 fastball from Adalberto Mejia into the third row in right-field to cut the Twins lead to 7-4 with one out in the inning.
In the ninth, Alonso would come up to the plate with Brandon Nimmo on first base after being walked by Chase De Jong.
On a 2-2 fastball, Alonso would take it to right-center field for his second home run of the day to finish the day 2-for-5 with two home runs and three RBI.
4. DeGrom Ties Record and Helps Himself
Jacob deGrom was coming off a six-inning shutout against Max Scherzer and the Washington Nationals on Opening Day looking to amass a record that only one other starting pitcher in MLB history had obtained: 26-straight consecutive starts.
DeGrom, 30, would manage to obtain that and much more on this night against the Miami Marlins as he would take center stage in Marlins Park.
In the top of the third inning, deGrom would come up for the first time in the game as a hitter and deliver as he would crush the very first pitch from Trevor Richards into right-field and over the wall into the Marlins bullpen to extend the Mets lead to 2-0.
Meanwhile, on the mound, he would deliver one of the best performances of his career as he would strike out a career-high 14 batters over seven innings while allowing only three hits and one walk.
That would help him start the season with 13 straight scoreless innings and give him a 26 inning scoreless streak since September of 2018.
5. Mets Win Seesaw Battle in the 11th
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emn6LyX8VPc
The last one in this article happened in the first game of the Mets first series played in Philadelphia this season which most would have expected to be a pitcher’s duel with Aaron Nola and Noah Syndergaard on the mound.
However, that would not be the case at all as the Mets would tag Nola for five runs in four innings of work while the Phillies would do the same to Syndergaard over five innings.
It was a seesaw battle, though, as the Mets took a 3-0 lead in the third inning just for Syndergaard to give it back up in the bottom of the inning. The same would happen in the fourth inning after the Mets regained the lead by a score of 5-3 as Maikel Franco would hit a game-tying two-run homer on a 0-2 pitch from Syndergaard.
Brandon Nimmo would give the Mets the lead again in the sixth as he would hit a 1-0 curveball from left-hander Jose Alvarez to right field for a solo shot that would put the Mets up by a score of 6-5.
The Mets eighth-inning bullpen management would haunt them, though, as the team had not spoken publicly about their restrictions on Edwin Diaz and how they had made him a strict three-out, ninth inning closer.
After Jeurys Familia could not get all three outs needed to move onto Diaz, the team decided to turn to Robert Gsellman with the bases loaded and two outs. On four pitches, Gsellman walked in Jean Segura to tie the game.
Gsellman would manage to escape the jam on the next at-bat, though, as he would get Bryce Harper to pop out to Amed Rosario.
This game would end up going to extra innings as Gsellman would pitch a clean ninth inning as well.
Luis Avilan would come in for the 10th inning and allow two hits that would put the winning run on third base with two outs. Avilan would go on to strike out Jean Segura with runners on second and third base with two outs to escape the jam.
The Mets would get things going a bit in the 11th inning as Juan Lagares would lead off the inning with an infield single and Brandon Nimmo would walk after that.
After Travis d’Arnaud popped out and Robinson Cano struck out, Michael Conforto would come up with two outs. On a 2-1 count, Conforto would hit a chopper to Rhys Hoskins that he would misplay for an error sending the ball into very shallow right field.
Cesar Hernandez would pick up the ball, but Lagares never stopped running from second base and scored to give the Mets a 7-6 lead and eventual victory as Edwin Diaz would secure his sixth save in a Mets uniform by striking out the side in the bottom of the inning.
