The Long Island lefty was thus denied a chance at the second no-hitter in Mets history by a matter of inches.
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And perhaps most importantly, his oblique hasn’t given him a problem these last two games.
Some of us in the press box even jokingly wondered if a torn Collins – to save himself from further agony and an impossible decision – actually would have argued for a hit had first-base ump Carlos Torres ruled that ball outside the foul line.
Jacob deGrom fired seven innings of one-run ball to help the Mets (58-58) back to.500. The call appeared to be correct, anyway.
Matz had thrown 95 pitches when he opened the eighth inning.
Johan Santana owns the Mets’ only no-hitter, on June 1, 2012.
Such is life for a major league rookie: Big star one night, botched play the next. He started the eighth by blowing a fastball past Jabari Blash, and got ahead of Ramirez. “I wasn’t going to visit the Johan Santana scenario again, I can tell you that”.
“I was really anxious about. I just said, “Boy, I hope he starts the ninth inning with a no-hitter, I’d like to see what happens”. Matz was charged with a balk that moved him to second. “The only thing on my mind was just getting outs”.
Matz struck out eight. “My arm’s been feeling great”.
The Padres and Mets will decide the victor of their three-game series this afternoon in a rubber match at Citi Field.
Similarly, Collins gladly will pack his team’s first back-to-back victories since early July before jetting off to Arizona to kick off a 10-game swing fully believing his middling Mets still are in the playoff hunt – just 2.5 games out of the second NL wild card spot.
REYES FEELING GOOD: Jose Reyes went 1-for-4 with a stolen base in his second game back after returning from a DL stint.
Matz is 7-2 with a 1.46 ERA in 10 career starts during the day.
“Terrific performance, ” Collins said. We’re still the National League champions. That’s never going to go away.
“The future is still here with [Jacob] deGrom, Matz, Syndergaard and a healthy Matt Harvey”.
Wil Myers tied the game for the Padres in the top of the ninth with a two-out solo homer against Jeurys Familia. Matz struck out former Yankee Yangervis Solarte to end the inning.
WASHINGTON — Tanner Roark pitched seven strong innings, Anthony Rendon hit a three-run homer and Bryce Harper had an RBI double in his first game in more than a week as Washington beat Atlanta to win the three-game series. They made it 2-0 when Walker hit his 21st leading off the fourth. Those 120 pitches took him through six innings as he allowed two runs on five hits and a walk, while striking out nine batters.
Padres leadoff man Travis Jankowski, who struggles against left-handed pitching, tried to bunt for a hit with a runner on first and two outs in the sixth. Usually, bunting to attempt to break up a no-hitter is a baseball no-no. The Padres are 5-2 in the last 7 meetings. He swung at the first pitch and grounded to short.
Padres: RHP Brandon Morrow was called up from Triple-A El Paso and pitched a flawless eighth inning, his first major league outing since May 2, 2015.
Matz exited to a raucous ovation and finished with two walks and eight strikeouts. The crowd let him know they appreciated what he did and what he nearly had a chance to do.
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“Oh, yeah, I wasn’t disappointed at all”, Matz said. They need that conditioning, as they know pitchers are more prone to injury when fatigue impacts their mechanics.
