The answer came at freshly soaked Nationals Park, in a 7-1 pounding of the Nationals Monday night as the Mets blasted three homers and vanquished one of their most consistent tormentors.
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With Duda out at least four to six weeks with a stress fracture in his lower back, the Mets are missing a serious threat.
By hitting his fifth home run of the season as the Mets trailed the Nationals 1-0, the 33-year-old now has 86 career go-ahead home runs, breaking a tie with former Mets’ outfielder Darryl Strawberry for the most in club history.
The day’s key American League clash saw Chicago and Cleveland split a double-header, keeping the White Sox 2-1/2 games clear of the Indians. That lead would be plenty for Colon, who rebounded from a rough start against the Nationals in his last outing to hold them to just one run on five hits in seven innings of work.
Rendon is 6 for 16 with a home run against Bartolo Colon (3-3, 3.75) and had a two-run single off the veteran to support Gonzalez in Wednesday’s win.
Grichuk drove a 2-2 pitch off Adam Warren for the win. “Right now, the No. 1 thing that’s not giving him love is his bat”. After two strikeouts, Pence lofted a shallow fly which fell between right fielder Matt Kemp and second baseman Alexi Amarista as they chased in vain. Cespedes scored on Cabrera’s hit and Walker came in on a sac fly by Eric Campbell that made it 5-1 NY. And in the fifth, Yoenis Cespedes and Neil Walker hit back-to-back solo home runs to make it a 7-1 lead. The Nos. 4-5-6 hitters for NY combined for six hits, four runs and three RBIs. “It was just one of those days”. After moving to third on a wild pitch, he scored on Martinez’s hit off Colton Murray (0-1).
J.D. Martinez and Nick Castellanos also homered for Detroit, which has won seven of eight. The former Cy Young Award victor struck out eight over eight innings to cap a 4-2 road trip with Sunday’s 8-2 victory at Miami. Now, for six weeks at least, the Mets will be without one of their most risky hitters.
Gonzalez, pitching to catcher Wilson Ramos for the first time this season, allowed seven runs and 10 hits in five innings.
With two on in the third, Gonzalez left an 82-mph changeup over the heart of the plate.
Oakland ended a four-game losing sequence by winning 5-0 at Seattle, with Rich Hill pitching eight scoreless innings to win his fourth straight start. “In that inning, their hitters were being aggressive first pitch”.
Miami’s Ichiro Suzuki had four hits, including a single in a two-run eighth inning that rallied the Marlins to a 7-6 victory over Florida rival Tampa Bay. Vogelsong was replaced by Wilfredo Boscan (1-0), who got the win in relief.
Kansas City’s Salvador Perez had a career-high five hits, including a double, a triple and an RBI, to lead the Royals past Minnesota 10-4. Point taken, as Wright hit a three-run shot off Nationals starter Gio Gonzalez (3-2) during a five-run third inning, and Cespedes and Walker went back-to-back in the fifth.
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The New York Mets put themselves back in position to challenge for first place in the National League East with a strong weekend and will try to keep the momentum going in the right direction when they visit the first-place Washington Nationals in the opener of a three-game series on Monday.
