The Mets won a wild, ugly game against the Tigers in 13 innings on Saturday afternoon at Citi Field >> Box score
Six things to know about Saturday's game
1) Leading off the bottom of the 13th inning with the game tied, 4-4, Tomas Nido smoked a homer to right field to give the Mets a 5-4 win. Nido's homer came after Hector Santiago escaped a bases loaded, one-out jam in the 12th inning before working a scoreless 13th.
2) With the game tied, 4-4, in the bottom of the 11th, the Mets wasted a golden opportunity to win. After a one-out walk by Wilson Ramos (who was pinch-run for by Steven Matz), consecutive singles by Dominic Smith and Todd Frazier loaded the bases with one out. That brought up Aaron Altherr, who struck out swinging after getting ahead in the count 3-1. Things were left to Adeiny Hechavarria, who grounded out to the pitcher on a 3-2 pitch.
3) As far as the Mets' offense goes, it was the Wilson Ramos show before extra innings. Ramos bashed a solo homer to left field in the second inning to tie things, 1-1. In the fourth inning, he gave New York a 2-1 lead when he grounded an RBI single to left. With the Mets trailing, 3-2, in the sixth, Ramos clubbed a two-run homer to right field.
4) With the Mets leading, 4-3, and a runner on third base with two outs in the top of the eighth, Mickey Callaway lifted Robert Gsellman and turned to Edwin Diaz for what would've been Diaz' first four-out save of the season. But Diaz allowed a flared single to right field to JaCoby Jones that tied things, 4-4.
5) In his first start since returning from the IL, Jason Vargas danced around trouble all day while limiting the Tigers to one run over 5.0 innings. Vargas came into the game with a pitch limit of around 85 and wound up tossing 81 pitches (48 for strikes). The only run Vargas gave up came in the first inning and was the result of a bloop single, a single that could have been ruled an error, and a sacrifice fly. Overall, Vargas allowed five hits while walking three and striking out three as his ERA for the season dipped to 5.22.
6) Tyler Bashlor was flashing a nasty curve during his appearance in the sixth inning, but threw a meatball to Brandon Dixon with two outs and a runner on first that Dixon demolished into the second deck in left field to give the Tigers a 4-3 lead. Aside from the damage, Bashlor fanned two in his one inning of work.
What's next
The Mets close out their series against the Tigers on Sunday at 1:10 p.m. at Citi Field.
Zack Wheeler takes the mound for the Mets, opposed by Spencer Turnbull for Detroit.