Yoenis Cespedes homered with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the New York Mets a 2-1 victory over Miami in the first game of a pivotal series between National League playoff contenders Monday night.
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The game ultimately went to extras where the 10th inning epitomized the way things have gone for the Fish of late.
Jose Reyes continued to rake and Seth Lugo pitched six strong innings in his third career start as the Mets topped the Marlins, 7-4.
“We’re trying to get in the postseason, so we know where we stand in that race”, Mets manager Terry Collins said.
Jose Reyes dashed home to score the tying run in the eighth on a risky collision at the plate. It was the third hit of the game for Cespedes, who admired the blast as the Mets began pouring out of the dugout.The Mets (67-64) tied the Marlins (67-64) for second place in the National League East while ensuring they’d remain no more than 2 1/2 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals in the race for the second wild card.Josh Smoker (1-0) earned his first major league win with a flawless 10th inning. But the Mets probably need Matz, too, if they are going to catch the Cardinals. The right-hander yielded only two hits during a spot start for Jacob deGrom, skipped in the rotation to rest and regroup following two poor outings in a row.
Christian Yelich tagged the righty for a two-run homer the opposite way to left in Tuesday’s first inning to put the Mets in a quick 2-0 hole.
“I walked six batters, but thank god I was able to get out of the jams”, Montero said through an interpreter. “I think there’s going to be a lot more to come and I’m excited to see where this team ends up”. “The answer is: ‘Hey, look, you’ve got to do it when you’ve got to do it.’ There’s no real good time”. “I was ecstatic. It was unbelievable”.
“If Yoenis Cespedes goes down, that’s an bad lot to ask of Brandon Nimmo or Michael Conforto to make up for him”, Collins said.
“It wasn’t planned. Reyes was telling me to take it easy because I was coming off of an injury”.
“It’s going to have to be something that he’s going to have to manage as he continues to play”, Collins said. It was the shortstop’s 17th home run of the season, and his fourth in 11 games since returning from the disabled list on August 19.
“They came out very aggressive today”, Koehler said.
Meanwhile, the Marlins have dropped four straight and six of eight overall. He left balls up in the zone and gave the opposition a number of chances to do some damage, but the Marlins stayed quiet. “They’ve literally just saved us”.
Kipnis lined a 1-0 pitch from Brandon Kintzler (0-1) with one out to left-center to finally break up the scoreless game.
Reyes and Cabrera got on base seven times in 10 combined plate appearances from the top two spots in the lineup. Earlier Nick Hundley hit for a two-run homer.
The expectation is Walker will try to play through it, but before and after the game Collins would speak only in hypothetical terms about the possibility of a quick return. That left NY without a healthy backup infielder, because Walker and Cabrera were the only two on the bench.
The 42-year-old Suzuki had two hits, increasing his career total to 3,011 and passing Hall of Famer Wade Boggs for 27th place in major league history.
Meanwhile, Matz has been scratched from his Thursday start against the Marlins, his scheduled comeback from the shoulder tightness that placed him on the disabled list last week. Really nice season and kudos to him to not giving up free passes, but I don’t think it’s safe to say he’s the best in the Junior Circuit.
Wilmer Flores is set to start at second base Monday night in place of Walker, sidelined for the second consecutive day by a stiff back.
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Tom Koehler had a tough game and it was a problem right away.
