“He’ll have another shot at it”. Matz was coming off of a career-high in pitches in his last start. One of the walks, much like Saturday night, led off the game, but after that, Matz settled in nicely.
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The Long Island lefty didn’t end up tossing the second no-hitter in Mets history in a 5-1 win over the depleted Padres, dominantly carrying his bid into the eighth inning barely 50 months after Santana had finally put a stop to the Mets’ franchise-long, half-century run without one in June of 2012 against the Cardinals. “The only thing on my mind was getting outs”, Matz said.
The defending NL champions (57-58) fell below.500 for the first time since April 17. NY led 2-0 on home runs by Wilmer Flores and Neil Walker off Padres starter Clayton Richard.
Matz pitched a master piece otherwise striking out 8 batters and picking up his 9th victory on the season.
The Mets had been in position to claim the game in nine innings due to another masterful outing by deGrom, who owns a 1.49 ERA over his last nine starts. He fanned All-Star slugger Wil Myers all three times.
“If [Matz] got through the eighth inning”, Collins said, “I was going to let him start the ninth depending on what the eighth inning looked like”. “I wasn’t going to visit the Johan Santana scenario again, I can tell you that”.
Pinch-hitter Kelly Johnson’s sacrifice fly put NY ahead 2-1 in the seventh. Richard was not too bad, going 5.0 innings and allowing just two runs, both on solo home runs.
“I’ll tell you what: Guys were rooting for him heavily in that dugout”, Collins said. NY would go on to score three more runs – Jose Reyes scored on a wild pitch, and T.J. Rivera hit a two-run double in the eighth. “He was cruising pretty good”.
It took nearly eight innings for the San Diego Padres to squeeze out their first hit Sunday, and only when Alexei Ramirez’s sharp grounder barely stayed fair.
Tigers 7, Rangers 0 • Michael Fulmer pitched a four-hitter in Detroit’s second straight shutout in Texas as Victor Martinez and J.D. Martinez homered among three hits apiece.
The lone, lone, lone alone run from the Friars came off a Yangervis Solart RBI-single. In his final 10 starts, he was 3-7 with an 8.27 ERA. He hadn’t allowed a home run in the regular season since Freddie Freeman connected for Atlanta last September 23. Sunday, they came within five outs of celebrating what would have been their second, four seasons after the first. Flores is hitting.354 against southpaws, including 18 for 40 (.450) with eight homers and 16 RBIs since July 1.
Padres: CF Jon Jay (broken right forearm) is scheduled to have another CT scan Monday in California and the team hopes he will be cleared to begin swinging a bat.
New York Mets catcher Rene Rivera, left, and relief pitcher Gabriel Ynoa celebrate after the team’s baseball game against the San Diego Padres on Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016, in New York. He will see noted orthopedist Dr. James Andrews on Wednesday, Green said.
Staying healthy has been especially challenging for Matz, who missed two seasons after Tommy John surgery in 2010 and missed time during his excellent rookie season in 2015 because of a lat injury.
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Even though pitching a no-hitter can be a once in a lifetime accomplishment for a pitcher, Collins was going to protect Matz.
