Bartolo Colon shocked everyone with his first career home run as the Mets broke loose with four more longballs on Saturday night to double up the Padres, 6-3, at Petco Park. Especially when Colon takes the mound and he hits a homer.
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The milestone shot was one of four home runs for the Mets Saturday.
Bastardo “kept the ball away and up, tough balls to get on top of”, Mets manager Terry Collins said.
The 42-year-old from the Dominican Republic, who has played in the Major League Baseball for 19 years, cleared the fence against San Diego Padres on Saturday. Colon won 20 games for the first and only time in 2005 for the Los Angeles Angels. The bad news is they could have taken a series from the reigning National League champs but blew more than a few chances to do it.
Asked if he were surprised with Colon’s swing, Shields said, “Next question, man”.
Zurn and his family were invited to meet Colon after the game, posing for pictures and getting autographs from several Mets.
Remember when Bryce Harper wore a hat before the beginning of the season saying, “Make Baseball Fun Again”, well Mets and baseball fans saw that last night.
The Mets pitcher and social media icon, 17 days shy of his 43rd birthday, became the oldest player to hit his first career home run. The oldest Met to hit a homer was Julio Franco, who hit a homer at the age of 44 in 2007. San Diego threatened to come back in the eighth, when Brett Wallace and Melvin Upton Jr. hit a pair of two-out singles, but Addison Reed struck out Alexei Ramirez to strand the runners and preserve the Mets’ lead. He gave way to left-hander Brad Hand just a half-inning after he was called out attempting to slide head-first into home place on Jay’s double to right. Shields had issues hitting the strike zone and walked five over his six innings of work.
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Cashner extended the inning when he reached on a strikeout-wild pitch with two outs. He has been on the disabled list since April 26 with a strained right rotator cuff.
