Curtis Granderson’s upbeat personality aided the Mets in navigating a hard day at the ballpark. After an extra-innings win Saturday night, they rested their veteran bats and relied on the reserves.
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The win, coupled with the St. Louis Cardinals’ 3-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants, vaulted NY (79-69) into a tie for first place with the Giants in the wild card race, two games ahead of the Cardinals.
First pitch is at 5:30 p.m. He was in a 1-for-26 slump before his first shot.
“The opportunity to kind of learn these last couple of weeks, to see these teams and how they play when they are in the running for something special, that’s what you have to take from these games right now”, he said. “He’s never down. He’s the same guy every day”.
If the Mets are to beat the Twins again, they’ll have to do it with what a so-called “bullpen game”.
Granderson pulled a 3-2 pitch from Ryan O’Rourke (0-1) down the right-field line to win it after leading off the 11th with a drive against closer Brandon Kintzler that made it 2-all. Dozier, whose 41 home runs rank second in the majors behind Mark Trumbo’s 42 for Baltimore, watched across the field with envy as the Mets pursued an NL wild card. Lucas Duda, playing in his first game since May 20, grounded out to third to end the inning.
“We thought … he was going to give us innings early”, Collins said.
Potentially losing their most risky hitter – even if manager Terry Collins said he expects Cespedes to be available for Monday’s start of a three-game series with the Braves – should make the Mets feel ill. “We have a lot of guys that are exhausted and a lot of guys that are banged up”.
Blevins on the Mets win: “This is our season in a nutshell”. His six previous appearances with the Mets since being recalled from Class AAA Las Vegas were relief outings, none longer than two innings.
Josh Edgin (1-0) pitched a scoreless 12th and got his first victory since June 1, 2014. The New York Mets Seth Lugo pitched five innings, striking out two, walking four and allowing four hits. He walked four but stranded them all, allowing his only run on a homer by Eddie Rosario in the fourth. New York’s collective psyche received a boost Friday with the news that Jacob deGrom would start the series finale, only to find out the next day that he will require elbow surgery.”I actually watched Jake’s bullpen yesterday and it was outstanding”, Mets manager Terry Collins told reporters Saturday. DeGrom, who hasn’t pitched since September 1 due to what the Mets said was a sore right forearm, was expected to return to the rotation Sunday after several successful bullpen sessions. Before the game, Collins said they had not yet decided what they will do with Jacob deGrom’s spot now that he is done for the season. Recovery time for the operation is expected to be three months, meaning the 28-year-old will be ready for spring training.
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Buxton’s homer was the latest sign that the former hyped prospect may be finding his way in the majors. In his last 16 games, he has hit eight home runs with 16 RBIs. Twins manager Paul Molitor said an MRI on IF/OF Miguel Sano (back) showed no new injury and Sano could return to the lineup next week. The blast left 29 injured. “I don’t know why it happened, ” Collins said. Also in the first, he reached into the stands to snare Logan Schafer’s foul pop.
