With two weeks left in the regular season, the Mets hold the first wild card in the National League – and a home game at Citi Field – but it wouldn’t be business as usual without a daily disruption to their lineup.
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Nine of the last 15 games are going to be played at Citi Field, where the Mets are now 39-33, going 10-3 in their last 13 home games. Josh Edgin (1-0) picked up the win with a scoreless 12.
DeGrom was scratched from his scheduled start Sunday and will probably miss the rest of the year because of an injury to the ulnar nerve in his right elbow.
Granderson’s second homer was the 201st by the Mets this season, breaking the team record set in 2006.
Michael Conforto drove in two runs with a first-inning, opposite-field single to left, his first multi-RBI game since June 8.
The Mets (80-69) improved to a season-high 11 games over.500 and won their 12th out of their last 15 games. The Twins are the worst team in the league, and losses to them at this time of year would be brutal.
After Minnesota’s Byron Buxton hit a soaring homer for a 2-1 lead in the 11th, Granderson tied it 2-all leading off the bottom half against closer Brandon Kintzler.
NY has won 11 of 14 at home and 19 of 26 overall. The New York Mets Seth Lugo pitched five innings, striking out two, walking four and allowing four hits. “I want to focus on today and tomorrow and the at-bats that I’m going to get in the future”.
Their rotation ravaged, the Mets handed the ball to a rookie for his first major league start.
He allowed four hits, one walk and Murphy’s sacrifice fly in the second.
The New York Mets seemed to spin all of their season’s storylines into a single win on Saturday night. DeGrom has not pitched since September 1 with what the Mets believed to be a forearm issue. The 2014 NL Rookie of the Year felt fine while throwing a bullpen Friday but sensed a twinge after tossing a baseball in from the outfield during batting practice about 15 minutes later. Matt Harvey and David Wright were lost to season-ending surgeries long ago, and more recently, the same thing happened to Neil Walker. General manager Sandy Alderson said the injury is a common byproduct of Tommy John surgery, which deGrom underwent in 2010.
Fans booed outfielder Jay Bruce after he popped out to foul territory in the seventh and struck out with a man on in the eighth. He dropped to 0-6 in seven starts since beating Cleveland on August 1 in his return from the minors. He was limited to seven games after his left arm was broken by a line drive in April, then fractured again when he slipped off a curb in August.
Matched against a pitcher almost half his age, Colon also helped himself with his glove – starting an inning-ending 1-6-3 double play in the first and covering first base on a grounder to the right side in the seventh. Matz will be evaluated Sunday before determining his next course of action. Recovery time for the operation is expected to be three months, meaning the 28-year-old will be ready for spring training. To make space, the Mets transferred LHP Jonathon Niese to the 60-day disabled list.
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“It’s a tremendous feeling and I’m so proud of the way they’ve handled themselves”, manager Terry Collins said before the game.
