Zack Wheeler made his bid for history tonight as he took the Marlins to task with 6.1 innings of no-hit baseball — although he was eventually saddled with a no-decision. Wheeler was masterful through those first six and some innings and was keeping his pitch count low. The Mets also played solid defense behind him, and things were starting to look serious when he struck out Stanton to lead-off the bottom of the seventh early. Wheeler walked Logan Morrison, however, and Ed Lucas lined a base hit into right field to start a string of three straight hits against Wheeler to tack on two runs against him.
Wheeler settled down and induced a double play though, and finished the game with a great line: 7.0 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 2 ER, 5 K. I would even go as far as to say his walks had a purpose tonight — as he picked his battles and worked both sides of the plate effectively. This was great to see from the young Wheeler.
That being said, the two runs Wheeler gave up in the seventh tied the game, and the Mets left Marlon Byrd hanging on third base with a lead-off triple in the eighth to stick him with the no-decision. The earlier two Met runs had scored on a Juan Lagares triple, who also played great defense all night long and added two other hits.
John Buck would come through in the clutch for the Mets in the top of the tenth inning with a two-run single that put the Mets on top, 4-2, and a tired Bobby Parnell would battle through the bottom of the tenth for his 22nd save on the year. He dropped his ERA to 2.16 with this scoreless inning of work.
These Mets have a lot more fight in them than it seems…Jenrry Mejia takes the mound for the Mets tomorrow in his much-awaited second start of the year. He dazzled everyone throughout his last start, which spanned seven shutout innings.
