The Mets pulled out a 7-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citi Field on Sunday, scoring four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to break a 3-3 tie and finish off a four-game sweep.
The rally enabled the Mets to stay in first place in the NL East, one game ahead of the Atlanta Braves who finished off their own three-game sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday.
Here are the Top Takeaways from the win:
1) The Mets signed Terrance Gore to a minor league contract as a free agent in June with this type of day in mind, hoping his speed could be a late-inning weapon for them.
So when Tomas Nido led off the bottom of the eighth with a single in a 3-3 game, Buck Showalter inserted Gore as a pinch-runner. The Pirates countered by bringing in lefty Manny Banuelos to try to prevent a stolen base, but Gore stole it with a good jump and took third when catcher Jason Delay threw wildly into center field.
That set up Brandon Nimmo to deliver the go-ahead run with a bloop single to shallow left field, as Gore scored easily to give the Mets a 4-3 lead. Daniel Vogelbach later added to the lead with a soft single to center to deliver two more runs.
The soft hits salvaged a rough day for the offense. The Mets were 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position before Nimmo’s blooper and had squandered numerous chances to blow the game open.
But Gore provided the spark. At age 31, he hadn’t played in the majors since 2020 when the Mets called him up on Sept. 1. He now has three stolen bases in three attempts since his call-up. He has played in bits and pieces of eight major league seasons and has 43 stolen bases, and only 15 hits.
2) For a long time it looked as if Jacob deGrom was on his way to a memorable afternoon, racking up 13 strikeouts through five innings, retiring 15 straight hitters after a leadoff double by Oneil Cruz.
But then it fell apart in stunning fashion in the sixth when soft singles by Zack Collins and Jason Delay brought up Cruz, the Pirates’ 6-foot-7 rookie shortstop with enormous potential. DeGrom thought he had him set up for a slider at 2-2 after four fastballs, but Cruz was on the down-and-in pitch, drilling it over the fence in right-center for a game-tying home run.
At that point Buck Showalter pulled deGrom because his pitch count was at 101, his high for the season. So despite all the dominance deGrom wound up going only five-plus innings, and his ERA rose from 2.01 to 2.33.
3) The Mets’ bullpen was crucial to the win. Seth Lugo pitched a scoreless sixth after relieving deGrom, and then Joely Rodriguez pitched two perfect innings to keep the game tied until the eighth-inning rally.
Rodriguez racked up a career-high five strikeouts, quite a performance for a guy who started the day with a 4.95 ERA and hasn’t been one of the Mets’ high-leverage relievers.
Still, Rodriguez has shown he can be effective when he has command of his change-up, and on this day he had it working, getting three strikeouts with it.
4) Benches cleared in the first inning when Pete Alonso was plunked on the arm with a 95 mph fastball and then had words with Pirates pitcher Johan Oviedo as he started down the first base line. No punches thrown and order was restored quickly before umpires issued a warning to both benches.
The Mets were hit by pitches four times on Saturday and the Alonso HBP raised the season total for the team to 102, the most in the majors. It has been a constant source of frustration for Showalter from the start of the season, though he said Saturday he doesn’t think any of the HBPs have been intentional.
5) Jeff McNeil is still within striking distance of winning the NL batting title. He raised his average to .320 with a 2-for-2 day that also included three walks.
That currently ranks him third in the NL behind Freddie Freeman, who started the day at .333 and Paul Goldschmidt (.322).