The Mets are in the midst of a lost season, in genuine competition to be the worst team in all of baseball this year. The Guardians are a team that is in a playoff hunt. You would not necessarily know that to be the case based on how the first two games in this series have gone. The Mets won the opener last night, and tonight they withstood a back-and-forth affair to ultimately come out on top in extra innings with a 6-5 victory.
The Mets got the scoring started in the top of the third when Brett
Baty led off the frame with an opposite field homer off Tanner Bibee. Jorge Polanco, who entered the game in the midst of a gruesome 0-for-26 stretch, followed that shot with a line drive shot to right field of his own, making it a 2-0 ballgame. The Mets would add to their lead just one inning later; Carson Benge hit a one-out grounder that third baseman Angel Genao (making his major league debut) threw past first base and into the stands, allowing the runner to go to second. Jared Young—who had been robbed of an extra-base hit in his first at-bat on a terrific running catch by Petey Halpin in center field—lined another ball to the right field corner. Benge came around to score on the double, and the Mets now led 3-0.
Christian Scott, meanwhile, held the Guardians off the board in the first three innings without much trouble, but he faltered in the bottom of the fourth. A leadoff walk was followed by a double to quickly put runners on second and third with nobody out, and Travis Bazzana proceeded to line a single to left to bring home Cleveland’s first run of the night. The Guardians still had runners on first and third with nobody out, but Scott hunkered down, inducing a ground ball to first for out number one and then striking out the next two batters to get out of the inning with just the one run scoring.
Scott would unfortunately find himself in trouble once again just an inning later, loading the bases on two singles and a walk with nobody out. He struck out Jo Adell for the first out, but Nathaniel Lowe then hit a single to right to bring two runs home and tie the game. Scott did manage to get the next two outs to keep the Guardians from taking the lead, and that would prove to be the end of his night. His final line—5 innings, 6 hits, 2 walks, 7 strikeouts, 3 earned runs—belies a so-so outing, but it is worth noting that he was throwing with some increased velocity.
Meanwhile, the Mets came right back and re-took the lead in the top of the sixth, as Benge hit a two-out solo shot to right field—his second homer in the series—to give the Mets a 4-3 lead and end Bibee’s night. Young greeted new pitcher Erik Sabrowski with a triple to left field—his second extra-base hit of the evening—but Francisco Alvarez then struck out to end the inning with just the one run having scored. Thus, the Mets had a very slim lead to work with, and it was in the hands of their new-look bullpen to try to hold it.
Jefry Yan was the guy out of the bullpen in the bottom of the sixth. The 29-year-old rookie lefty was making his major league debut, and he quickly introduced his signature strikeout celebration after punching out the leadoff hitter. He then loaded the bases on two singles and a walk, but struck out his second batter—and had another jumping celebration—and then induced a groundout to end the inning and secure the lead for the Mets. Unfortunately, the same did not end up being true the following inning. Dedniel Núñez came on for his first major league outing in over a year in the seventh, and the first batter he faced reached base when Young could not cleanly field a grounder at first base. He came close to getting out of the inning after getting the next two outs via strikeout and groundout, but three straight singles followed—the second an RBI single off the bat of Patrick Bailey, and the third an RBI single by Genao, who made up for his earlier error by getting four hits at the plate in his major league debut. The two runs against Núñez—who struck out Steven Kwan to end the inning—were unearned, but nevertheless, the Guardians now led 5-4.
The Mets could not capitalize on a leadoff double from A.J. Ewing in the top of the eighth. Chayce McDermott came on for his Mets debut, and the former Dodgers pitcher tossed a scoreless inning (working around an ugly error in left field from Christian Pache, who came on as a defensive replacement and proceeded to drop a fairly routine fly ball with two outs). The Guardians then brought on closer Cade Smith to try to close things out in the top of the ninth. Young led off the frame with a walk, but Smith then got Alvarez to pop out and struck out pinch hitter Luis Robert Jr. to bring the Mets to their final out. Polanco then hit his second extra-base hit of the night, this one a double to put runners on second and third. Marcus Semien followed that by walking to load the bases and bring Ewing up to the plate. The speedy rookie his a grounder up the middle, and shortstop Brayan Rocchio couldn’t field it cleanly on the run. That error brought allowed Young to score from third, making it a 5-5 ballgame. Lindor struck out with the bases loaded to keep it tied, and McDermott—coming out for a second inning of work—worked around a leadoff walk in the bottom of the inning to send the game to extras.
The Mets quickly took the lead in the top of the tenth, as Bo Bichette greeted new pitcher Matt Festa by lining a single to right to score the ghost runner from second. Bichette did get thrown out trying to stretch the single into a double, and Festa rebounded by striking out the next two batters. Thus, new pitcher Daniel Duarte came on to try to hold the one-run lead (notably, Devin Williams appeared to be unavailable tonight despite the save opportunity). Kwan bizarrely tried to bunt to lead off the inning and popped out to third base. Duarte then issued a one-out walk to put runners on first and second, but he then got the final two outs—via a pop-out and groundout—to end the game and give the Mets the victory.
The Amazins will now go for the unlikely sweep tomorrow afternoon.
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Big Mets winner: Daniel Duarte, +44% WPA
Big Mets loser: Dedniel Núñez, -40% WPA
Mets pitchers: +19% WPA
Mets hitters: +31% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: A.J. Ewing reaching on fielding error in the ninth, +30.5% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Patrick Bailey RBI single in the seventh, -24.6% WPA
