Yes, the ride has been bumpy of late, but at no point have the Mets been in imminent danger of ceding the driver’s seat in the NL East. Still, Collins has appeared wound tight, even tense, despite his insistence that he can “manage the anxiety”.
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Cincinnati Reds Josh Smith pitches against the New York Mets in the first inning of their baseball game in Cincinnati, Thursday, September 24, 2015. Matz allowed just two runs in 7 innings against the Reds on June 28. New York (86-67) increased its lead in the National League East to 7 1/2 games over the Washington Nationals who dropped their third straight to Baltimore on Thursday. They trail the Dodgers by 11/2 games for home-field advantage in the NLDS.
“Tomorrow has enough worry for itself”, said Daniel Murphy. “It was a good win”. “We’re just a step closer”.
Matz offered another mixed bag in his 5 2/3 innings. He has eight game-tying or go-ahead RBIs since being reinstated. But he surrendered 10 hits, which got louder as the game went on. The medical science behind limiting innings after TJS is limited at best, and every arm is different, but you’d certainly understand why Harvey (and his agent Boras) would be concerned with preserving it and therefore preserving future earnings.
Working with a 3-1 lead, Matz allowed the Reds to chip away. In the sixth, Cincinnati tied it up at three when Adam Duvall singled to score Eugenio Suarez which ended Steven Matz’s night. Then, the Mets seemingly did much of the same with our very own Jay Bruce (and it’s still not clear who backed out of that one) before landing Yoenis Cespedes from the Tigers.
Daniel Murphy had three hits, including a tiebreaking triple in the seventh inning, and the Mets beat the Cincinnati Reds 6-4 on Thursday night.
It was definitely Matz’s best fastball command in his four starts since coming off the DL.
“This certainly is going to be fun to watch, these four games, because it could have a direct impact on what we’re going to do down the road here”, Collins said, referring to the Mets’ potential rotation for the NLDS. “We’ve seen it for six years”. “When that guy gets hot, nobody can get him out”. He knocked in a pair of runs, bringing his tally to 105 for the season.
Murphy’s seventh-inning hit also solved a problem that seemed to have plagued the Mets during their homestand: leaving runners on base.
The bats produced a three-run second inning Thursday, but they went cold before a three-run outburst with two outs in the seventh after the Reds had tied the game in the sixth.
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In his two seasons in the majors, the right-hander has been considerably worse in a home environment (5-9, 5.52 ERA) than on the road (6-4, 2.86). Umpires ruled his quick pitch to Bruce a ball, prompting Collins to emerge from the dugout to question why it hadn’t been called a no-pitch.
