Francisco Lindor hit home runs from both sides of the plate and drove in five runs as the Mets took care of business with some splendid defense for a 7-1 win over the San Diego Padres on Saturday night.
New York improved to 68-62 on the season and San Diego fell to 73-58. But the Mets stayed 2.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves for the final NL wild-card spot.
Here are the takeaways…
- A stroke of late-season luck put the Mets on the board in the top of the first inning. After Mark Vientos and Brandon Nimmo worked walks (the latter on a generous 3-2 call from the home-plate umpire), Pete Alonso hit a broken-bat slow roller down the third-base line that hit the bag and bounced into foul territory. That allowed Vientos to scamper home and alert runners advance resulting in a double on a ball the slugging first baseman muscled just 40.4 mph off the bat.
Ex-Yankee Michael King walked another batter to load the bases for Starling Marte with two outs, but Marte was caught staring at a fastball over the plate to leave ‘em loaded and limit the damage to a single run.
- The Mets got a two-out RBI chance in the fourth after Marte singled, Manny Machado dropped a soft liner off Francisco Alvarez’s bat and King hit Jeff McNeil on a 1-2 pitch to load the bases for Francisco Lindor. And when King hung a 2-0 sweeper over the heart of the plate the shortstop didn't miss it, cranking a 417 grand slam to right (108.1 mph) for a 5-0 lead.
Lindor added a solo shot -- this time batting as a righty -- with a liner to left field off Padres reliever Yuki Matsui to start the seventh. The MVP candidate drove his 27th home run 353 feet and 108.9 mph off the bat. It was his fourth multi-homer game of the season and 19th in his career.
- David Peterson, after needing just 11 pitches for a 1-2-3 first, got some help from his defense in the second. With a runner on first and one down, Jackson Merrill lined a shot to the gap in right-center and Jesse Winker with a diving, backhanded snag to rob the Padres rookie of extra bases.
Peterson finally surrendered a hit with one down in the fourth, but the lefty -- once again pitching with a big lead for the third time in his last four starts -- was through 12 outs on just 49 pitches.
A one-out infield hit and a walk but runners on first and second for San Diego before Mason McCoy looped a single to center to load the bases for the top of the order. The lefty induced a soft grounder to third and a comebacker to limit the damage to just one run.
And Peterson cruised after that, allowing just one base runner to get through seven frames for his second straight start and he came back out for the eighth for the first time on the year, but a one-out double ended his outing.
The lefty did well to get ahead (throwing a first-pitch strike to 20 of 29 batters) and despite his average velocity on his fastball and sinker was down 1.7 mph on the night, he deftly avoided big innings.
His final line: 7.1 innings, five hits, one run, two walks and two strikeouts on 96 pitches (61 strikes) to lower his ERA to 2.85 on the year.
- Dedniel Nunez, in his first appearance since coming off the IL, got the final two outs of the eighth, including a strikeout of Machado.
The right-hander looked absolutely nasty in his return, surrendering a two-out single but adding another two strikeouts to close the door in the ninth.
- Harrison Bader, after entering as a pinch hitter in the sixth, broke his 0-for-20 stretch clobbering a cutter 395 feet to left off the facing of the second deck with one down in the eighth.
- Alvarez, after hitting a walk-off home run on Monday, entered the game hitless in his last 12 at-bats with seven strikeouts. He reached base on an error in both the fourth and the sixth, but finished the day 0-for-4 to extend his hitless streak amid a tough time at the plate.
- It was not J.D. Martinez’s night at the plate, as he went down on strikes in each of his first three at-bats (once swinging and twice looking). He finished 0-for-4.
- In the oddities column, Machado made three outs on three pitches off Peterson. All three balls were hit hard (99.5, 100.8 and 104.2 mph), and all went to the warning track -- one each in right, left and center.
MVP of the Game: Francisco Lindor
The shortstop is making a strong case for MVP of the National League, as he now has 27 dingers and 78 RBI on the year to go along with an .831 OPS.