Jugglin' Mets Making it Work
All hands on deck for Rojas & Co. and things are moving right along...
Another day. Another injury report. Another juggling act.
As the team awaits MRI results on Johneshwy Fargas’ injured left AC joint suffered in Monday night’s loss to the Rockies, Mets skipper Luis Rojas was left stitching together a lineup for Tuesday’s matchup.
That shook out as follows:
James McCann was back at first base — naturally — with Tomas Nido behind the plate, Brandon Drury in right field, Cameron Maybin in centerfield, Jose Peraza back at second base, and some right-hander with a .467 batting average returning from the IL in the nine-hole.
Jacob deGrom — back on the bump after dealing with lower right-side tightness — sat 99-101 MPH through an eight-pitch perfect first. Oh, he’s back.
All the Mets needed were some runs.
Jonathan Villar led off the bottom half with a single off Colorado lefty Kyle Freeland, Francisco Lindor walked behind him, Villar and Lindor pulled off a double steal with Drury at the plate, and McCann brought Villar home with an RBI groundout.
Runs on demand, baby!! Though, the lead wouldn’t last long.
Ryan McMahon took deGrom deep on a 100 MPH outside-half four-seam to tie the game at one leading off the second. He’s human, after all.
As Keith Hernandez gushed during the broadcast, McMahon is a very impressive young player and, as Gary Cohen noted moments later, with Colorado in the NL West basement, he could very well be on the move as the season progresses.
McMahon, 26, spends most of his time at second base but plays third and first, as well. His road numbers aren’t great, but Nolan Arenado doesn’t seem to be feeling the effects of leaving Coors Field.
Hey Zack Scott, send a note across the stadium. They’re giving guys away with bags of money as the kicker over there.
Villar doubled into the left-field gap to lead off the third but was thrown out attempting to steal third (slid over the bag upon further review) with Drury in the box, who singled a few pitches later. Tough break. Villar had the bag swiped.
McCann and Dominic Smith walked behind Drury to load the bases but Nido grounded out to end the frame.
DeGrom breezed through four innings, striking out six Rockies and setting down eight in a row heading into the fifth.
Jake chipped in his eighth base hit of the season in the bottom half of the fourth but came off the bag (yes, again) after outstandingly stretching his single into a double, ending the inning.
You’ve gotta see this. Well, you probably already did. But here, look again. Jake the Snake, man…
DeGrom worked around a Rodgers base hit in a scoreless fifth, picking up three more strikeouts and doing so quite economically, hitting the sixth with just 63 pitches to his credit.
Check out the tailing, inning-ending 101 MPH four-seamer to freeze Connor Joe at the end of this clip. Woof.
Absolutely cruising at the time, Rojas had seen enough from deGrom in his first outing back and went to Miguel Castro for the sixth.
SNY cameras caught Jake smiling and receiving hugs in the dugout so, apparently, this was the plan all along. With five innings of one-run ball, deGrom’s ERA jumped to 0.80 on the season.
With a whittled-down rotation (Taijuan Walker threw live batting practice on Tuesday, by the way) and a long summer ahead, take a seat, Jake. The ReplaceMets got this.
Dom Smith singled with one out in the sixth and Tomas Nido put the Mets ahead with a two-run home run just over the orange line — actually directly off an orange M&M — in left-center field.
It’s still The Bench Mob. It’ll always be The Bench Mob.
Castro put up another scoreless frame, retiring Colorado in order in the seventh. Now, with a two-run lead late, Rojas could lean on his big guns to take things home.
Trevor May, struggling a bit over his last three outings (two home runs in 3.0 IP), worked around a leadoff base-on-balls in a scoreless eighth, Edwin Diaz turned in a clean ninth, and the Mets head into Wednesday with a one-game lead in the division.
We’ll take that. LFGM, family.
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