Behind a four-hit, two-RBI night from Francisco Lindor and an eighth-inning solo homer from J.D. Martinez, the Mets grabbed a much-needed come-from-behind 3-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday night at Citi Field.
New York snapped a rough three-game losing streak to improve to 23-33.
Here are the takeaways…
– Lindor greeted Arizona starter Zac Gallen with a base hit off the glove of a diving Kevin Newman at short. But on the sixth delivery of his night, a first-pitch ball to DJ Stewart, Gallen spun around on his right leg and the right-hander was removed due to a hamstring strain.
Bryce Jarvis entered and after walking Stewart, got Brandon Nimmo on a sinking liner to left, J.D. Martinez to tap out and Starling Marte swinging on a ball way outside the zone to strand two in scoring position.
And that was a theme of the night: Lindor got hits, the Mets had runners, but couldn’t capitalize.
– Lindor did everything himself in the third driving a 431-foot homer (105.7 mph off the bat) to deep right-center off lefty Brandon Hughes. It was Lindor’s second homer as a righty on the year in 45 at-bats and the seventh of his nine dingers belted with two strikes.
The Mets then got something cooking with two down after Martinez walked and Marte singled the tying run was in scoring position again. But Jeff McNeil grounded out to short to close the frame.
– In the fifth, Lindor got his third hit with a single, but Stewart went down looking and Nimmo hit into a 6-4-3 inning-ender. On the night, the Mets left seven on base and outside of the shortstop went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position to allow Arizona to hang around.
– Pete Alonso, who was not in the starting lineup after leaving Wednesday’s game after he was hit in the hand, pinch-hit for Brett Baty with one out in the seventh and yanked a two-strike double past the third baseman.
After pinch-hitter Harrison Bader popped out, it was up to Lindor and he hit a two-strike RBI single to right off right-hander Ryan Thompson to tie the game.
– With one down in the eighth, Martinez, got a first-pitch sinker and launched it 430 feet to center field (109.4 mph off the bat) for a go-ahead solo homer.
Marte followed with his second hit of the night and stole second, but McNeil went down on a half swing (he finished 0-for-4) and Vientos hit a soft liner to end the inning.
– Reed Garrett got the chance to close things out in the ninth and walked leadoff hitter Christian Walker on a full-count slider well out of the zone to put the tying run on. But the righty got a pair of infield pop-ups on back-to-back first pitches and pinch-hitter Jake McCarthy to ground out meekly to second to end it.
– Christian Scott worked a smooth 16-pitch first inning – allowing a loud, long flyout to the wall in left-center and a two-out runner on a catcher’s interference. He had a 20-minute wait before taking the hill for the top of the second inning and after a leadoff single, blew a high fastball past Pavin Smith starting a strike ’em out, throw ’em out twin killing.
Scott ran into a spot of bother in the third – a bloop single to start and a one-out walk put two aboard. His fastball command appeared to abandon the young righty, throwing six straight out of the zone before Ketel Marte roped a fastball over the middle of the plate into the right field corner for a two-RBI double.
Scott needed 54 pitches to get through the first three innings and on the 19th pitch of the fourth, left a fastball over the middle of the plate for a double into the right-field corner. But the young righty blew fastballs past back-to-back hitters to collect his third and fourth strikeouts on the night to strand the runner.
Scott got his first 1-2-3 inning in the fifth on eight pitches to close his fifth big league start. His final line: 5.0 innings, four hits, two runs, one walk and four strikeouts on 91 pitches (58 strikes).
– Adrian Houser, making the transition to the bullpen, was the first man in relief in the sixth and worked around a one-out walk with a 4-3 double play.
Sloppiness nearly bit the Mets again in the seventh when Lindor’s fielding error put a runner on first with one out, a steal of a second and a ball in the dirt that Narvarez couldn’t stop from being a wild pitch put a runner on third with one out. But Houser got a pair of strikeouts to end the inning.
– Left-hander Danny Young, called up when Jorge Lopez was DFA’d on Thursday, got Arizona 1-2-3 in the eighth with a strikeout.
Highlights
MVP of the Game: Francisco Lindor
Lindor extended his hitting streak to nine games and is hitting .375 over his last 40 at-bats with four doubles, two homers and six RBI.
What’s next
The four-game set continues on Friday night at Citi Field for a 7:10 p.m. first pitch.
Right-hander Luis Severino (2-2, 3.22 ERA) climbs the hill for the home team against left-hander Jordan Montgomery (3-2, 4.69 ERA).
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