Ynoa became the latest unknown starting pitcher to capitalize on his opportunity when he came within an out of a win and struck out eight in 4 2/3 effective innings as the Mets completed a three-game sweep with a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins.
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Learning of a devastating injury only to regain some footing and get a win? Dozier has 41 home runs.
In yet another surprising September turn, Gabriel Ynoa struck out eight over 4 2/3 innings, Jerry Blevins fanned Brian Dozier to complete a four-out save and NY completed a three-game sweep of the woeful Minnesota Twins with a 3-2 victory Sunday.
The Mets are one game behind the Giants (79-68) in the race for the first wild card. [Pitching coach] Dan [Warthen] and I talked before the game, we said, ‘Listen, we’ll get him two times through the lineup in his first start, see how he does.’ He got us into the fifth inning.
After the Twins, the Mets host the Atlanta Braves and Phillies before finishing with a six-game trip to Miami and Philadelphia. He recorded four strikeouts in four innings along with his first career hit in the third inning. The Mets then loaded the bases and were on the verge of breaking through before Jose Reyes was called out on strikes to end the threat. The Mets have hit 18 home runs in their last 11 games and 36 in their last 21 contests and, amazingly, the Mets are 69-37 when they homer.
“Our resiliency is great”. “He must have made some good pitches, worked the corner of the plate, got ahead of some guys”. He won the game with a homer in the 12th. They will look for another win later tonight (Saturday) with game two of the series with the Mets.
Coming on pretty strong as of late, the Mets are looking to open up a little bit of distance between themselves and the Cardinals with the team’s final home stand against the Twins, Atlanta Braves, and Philadelphia Phillies now underway in Citi Field.
Granderson’s second blast was the the Mets’ 201st this season, a franchise record. He has hit 28 home runs but somehow has only 51 RBIs. “I always do that”, Colon said through a translator. “I just haven’t been able to get as many RBI, successful chances, over the season. I just kind of walked out of the bullpen kind of not feeling like I like to feel”.
Granderson is still hitting a horrid.221, but he is in sort of a tear.
In Chicago, Ryan Braun went deep twice to reach 30 homers for the sixth time, Chris Carter hit a grand slam off the Wrigley Field video board and Milwaukee routed the NL Central champions.
Some of the success has coincided with moving him to the cleanup spot in the batting order, where he has been all month. “Certainly we’re hoping that maybe Steven is a part of that mix too”. “As much as you think you have to react and start benching guys, this is the guy. He’s getting a little dizzy, so I took him out”.
Over the course of the game, the Mets could have scored more runs, but their bullpen managed to make those three runs hold up. Matt Harvey and David Wright were lost to season-ending surgeries long ago, and more recently, the same thing happened to Neil Walker.
But for each seeming major setback there has been a tiny surprise to make up for it. Call-ups Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo stepped into the rotation and are a combined 6-3.
But he yielded only four hits and one run after stranding five in scoring position.
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But even though the New York Mets are leading the National League wild card race, they’ll be the ones sending an unknown to the mound and potentially fielding a piecemeal lineup Sunday afternoon.
