The only Met to reach was pitcher Noah Syndergaard, who walked with two outs in the third after narrowly missing a home run. They are 4 1⁄2 games behind the Cardinals for the second wild-card spot and are in St. Louis for three games starting Tuesday night. Two pitches later, Cespedes hit a drive onto the walkway above the left-field bleachers estimated at 417 feet. Hopefully, this is the start of what we’ve been looking to do.
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Yoenis Cespedes: Crusher of dreams, denier of hope.
The win Sunday was the 900th of NY manager Terry Collins’ career, his 456th with the Mets.
Before landing on the DL, Cespedes tried to play through the injury for a month. (If you’re having trouble remembering De Aza hitting a home run as a Giant as a waiver-wire pickup past year, that’s because he didn’t.) As a outcome, the Mets blew open a one-run game in the sixth, Moore remained winless in four starts as a Giant, and manager Bruce Bochy was left to defend a decision to use Peavy, his old and respected former ace, in a one-run game.
“I haven’t had anybody that the ball comes off the barrel like that. I can’t say anything about that”, Cespedes said through the team interpreter. For the 43-year-old right-hander, there isn t a whole lot of speed involved. Justin Ruggiano had an RBI single and Alejandro De Aza slugged a three-run homer off Jake Peavy. But the ball just jumps off [Cespedes’] bat. As we’ve seen, when he’s healthy, he’s got all the talent in the world. “That was a tee shot”.
Maybe the walk was understandable, given Syndergaard homered against the Diamondbacks in his previous start, giving him three for the season.
Samardzija has never pitched a no-hitter and is winless in three career starts against the Mets.
Syndergaard set an efficient tone early, requiring only 11 pitches to breeze through his opening frame.
The closest the Mets came to a hit against Samardzija through the first six innings was Jose Reyes’ grounder to lead off the game that a diving Brandon Crawford backhanded in the shortstop hole before throwing out the speedy runner. He was a difference maker on the 2015 Mets, and he is going to have to do the same thing to keep the Mets competitive throughout this next two seasons. “I was just able to stay really calm and poised out on the mound and just not try to do too much”. Nicaragua s Dennis Martinez has won the most games by a pitcher from Latin America, with 245. Saturday, it seemed like he got his timing back at the plate.
Collins was prepared to send Syndergaard out for the ninth inning in pursuit of his first career complete game, but Thor told the staff eight innings was sufficient.
At the All-Star break, the Giants had the best record in baseball and a six-and-a-half-game lead in the National League West. It’s Syndergaard’s 20th career victory in 49 games, coming in what Collins called his best outing “in a long time”. The first two batters to reach – Trevor Brown on a walk in the third and Eduardo Nunez on an infield single in the fourth – were caught stealing by catcher Rene Rivera. Prior to that, opponents had successfully stolen 40 bases in 44 attempts against NY with Syndergaard on the mound.
“We were behind in the count and I assumed (Cespedes) was sitting heater and I thought we could get something he could roll over there or a swing and miss”, Samardzija said.
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With the win, the Mets (62-62) returned to.500.
