A four-run third and web gems buoy Mets over Bucs
· Yahoo Sports
The Mets defeated the Pirates 6-4 in this series opener at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Zac Thornton delivered five scoreless innings, helped out by strong defense behind him and the Mets tagged Carmen Mlodzinski for four runs in the third, punctuated by a Macrus Semien three-run homer. Devin Williams was shaky, but held on to polish off the victory.
The Mets got on the board right away off Carmen Mlodzinski in the first. A.J. Ewing, who had a good game on both sides of the ball, led things off with a double. Francisco Lindor then truck out, but Bo Bichette singled to advance Ewing to third and then Carson Benge plated him with a single for the game’s first run. Bichette tagged up to third base on a fly out by Jared Young and the Mets threatened for a big inning when Benge stole second to put two runners in scoring position, but Macrus Semien grounded out to short to get Mlodzinski through the inning with just one run.
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Zach Thornton started his evening with a 1-2-3 inning complete with a strikeout and Mlodzinski bounced back to log a 1-2-3 inning of his own in the top of the second. Thornton had a quick second inning as well, thanks to his defense, which played well behind him all evening. Thornton walked Esmerlyn Valdez to lead off the inning but then Jared Young made a nice snag on a soft liner by Spencer Horwitz to double Valdez off. At this point, it began to rain rather heavily and A.J. Ewing needed to make a diving play through the rain drops on a Nick Gonzales shallow fly ball to end the inning. We made it to a 2-1 count on Ewing to lead off the top of the third before the tarp went on the field.
After a rain delay of just under an hour, the Mets came out guns blazing. Ewing singled to get things started and then Francisco Lindor worked a walk. The Pirates then got a break when the runners took off and would have executed a double steal, but Bo Bichette flew out to left field and A.J. Ewing failed to re-touch third base after he went past the bag on the steal attempt and went to return to second on the fly ball, and thus was called out on the play. But the Mets weren’t done hitting yet. Lindor stole second base (for real this time) and Carson Benge singled to put the Mets up 2-0. Jared Young followed with a single to advance Benge to third. Marcus Semien then dealt the decisive blow: a three-run homer to cap off a four-run inning and put the Mets up 5-0.
Whether you want to call it pulchritudinous, psychotic, hellacious, or some other adjective, Carson Benge made an unbelievable diving catch up against the left field wall to rob Ronny Simon of an extra base hit in the bottom of the third. Unfortunately he jammed his wrist against the wall in the process and made an early exit from the game as a result, replaced in left field by Cristian Pache. Evan Sisk replaced Carmen Mlodzinski on the mound for the Pirates in the fourth and the Mets tacked on a run against him to extend their lead to six runs. With two outs, Ewing was hit by a pitch and promptly stole second base. Lindor then laced a single to center to drive him in.
Thornton managed to navigate around traffic on the base paths in both the fourth and fifth innings again in part thanks to his defense. He gave up a one-out single to Bryan Reyonds in the fourth and then walked Valdez, but induced a double play grounder off the bat of Spencer Horwitz to end the inning. In the fifth, Nick Gonzales led off the inning with a seeing-eye single between short and third. Ronny Simon popped out and Jared Triolo grounded into a force out at second, but Rafael Flores Jr. singled with two outs to advance Triolo to second and he scrambled to third on a wild pitch by Thornton. Jake Mangum then hit a sharp fly ball to right center that A.J. Ewing did an excellent job to track down and make the running catch to cap off Thornton’s outing of five scoreless frames.
In the sixth with two outs, Luis Torrens drew a walk and stole second base for the Mets’ fourth stolen base of the game, but nothing game of it. Dedniel Núñez came in the game in relief of Thornton and worked around a one-out ground rule double by Bryan Reynolds to pitch a scoreless inning. Meanwhile, Yohan Ramírez kept the Mets off the board over 3 1/3 scoreless innings and the Pirates were able to scratch back two runs off the Mets’ bullpen. Núñez came back out for a second inning of work in the seventh and that proved to be a bad idea, as he gave up a double to Nick Gonzales and a single to Ronny Simon to lead things off. He then made way for Jefry Yan, who allowed a single to Jared Triolo to plate the Pirates’ first run. He then walked Rafael Flores Jr. to load the bases and a sacrifice fly by Jake Mangum scored another run to cut the Mets’ lead to 6-2. Yan got Brandon Lowe to pop out for the second out and escaped the jam in thrilling fashion. He bounced a pitch that skipped away from Luis Torrens, but scampered to cover the plate and Torrens flipped it to him and Yan tagged Jared Triolo out at the plate to end the inning, emphatically slamming his hand down on the dirt in celebration, in keeping with his personality.
Daniel Duarte worked a scoreless eighth inning, navigating around a two-out single by Spencer Horwitz. The Mets then faced off against old friend Luke Weaver in the ninth, now donning Pirates black and gold. Ewing and Lindor managed to reach base against him via a single and a walk, respectively, but Weaver kept the Mets off the board. Devin Williams then entered the game in the bottom of the ninth in a non-save situation and had a rocky outing, but managed to hang on to seal the victory, assisted by another pair of fantastic defensive plays by the Mets. Ronny Simon got things started for the Pirates with a single and advanced to second on defensive indifference. Endy Rodríguez, pinch hitting for Jared Triolo, flew out to left for the first out. Jacob Gonzalez, pinch hitting for Rafael Flores Jr., launched a ball to deep right field that hit right off the top of the tall fence in right at PNC Park and caromed perfectly to Brett Baty, who threw a perfect strike to second base to nab Gonzalez trying to leg out what he likely thought was a sure extra-base hit off the bat. It was the first outfield assist of Brett Baty’s career and it was a beauty to get Williams within an out of maneuvering through the inning, though Simon did score on the play. Williams then walked Jake Mangum, who also advanced to second on defensive indifference, and Brandon Lowe singled to cut the Mets’ lead to two runs. Bryan Reynolds then came to the plate as the tying run and hit a grounder that seemed to be making its way through the hole between first and second, but Marcus Semien made a great sliding grab to his left to throw out Reyonlds and stymie the Pirates’ comeback to end the game.
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Box scores
Win Probability Added
Big Mets winner: Zac Thornton, +18% WPA
Big Mets loser: Bo Bichette, -7% WPA
Mets pitchers: +23% WPA
Mets hitters: +27% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Marcus Semien’s three-run homer in the third, +18.2% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Jefry Yan walks the bases loaded in the seventh, -6.4% WPA