The Mets defeated the Cardinals by the score of 2-1 tonight in extra innings at Citi Field. Here are my takeaways from tonight’s win…
A gutsy #HarveyDay.
What a night for Matt Harvey. He struggled early with his command and really had to think his way through some early jams thanks to his inability to spot his fastball. But, the defense came to his aid, turned two critical double plays for him, and afforded him a chance to get on-track with his fastball. That happened around the fifth inning, and he went on cruise control from there.
To me, this was his most outstanding performance of the year. He didn’t have it early, this is an incredibly difficult and challenging lineup, and the ace found a way to get on track and make the one run stand up, at least during his eight innings.
He’s just brilliant, and once again arguably the best pitcher in baseball. It’s almost hard to understand how and why he is so good, but he’s the gutsiest pitcher the Mets have had in my lifetime. What’s amazing about him is for someone who really lacks a lot of mound time in his career, he’s so smart and so advanced in the way he approaches each situation. What a pleasure he is to have on this club.
It would be nice if Harvey could win one of these games he doesn’t give up a run, however.
A rare blown save for Jeurys Familia.
Familia didn’t even pitch poorly – the Cardinals turned a single into a run with some hit and run and a sac fly in the ninth inning. It’s what good teams do, and St. Louis is a phenomenal club. They executed and found a way to stay in this game. Tip of the cap to them in the ninth inning.
Mets got some middle infield defense.
Wait. What?
Yep. Wilmer Flores really made a game changing play with a double play he started by diving to his right against Jason Heyward, and flipping to second to double off Jhonny Peralta to bail Harvey out of a 1st and second, one out jam.
Then, in the seventh, Harvey induced a groundball double play off the bat of Heyward again which iced another St. Louis threat.
It feels so unusual the Mets were actually able to execute a couple of key plays, and have them be the difference on the positive side for the Mets. But, it feels good it actually worked out for them tonight, especially with the bats freezing up against John Lackey, who deserves a lot of credit for the way he pitched tonight as well.
Painful offense.
The two teams struck out 32 times combined tonight. There were 19 hits total, and only three of them were for extra-bases. And, Curtis Granderson had two of those extra-base hits. It was a good game for the ERA’s, bad one for the averages and on-base percentages.
The offense seemed to get worse for both clubs as the game went on, as the contact seemed to get less significant in extra innings. I mean, what do you say after a night like this for both clubs? I guess I’ll credit the pitching since both teams were anemic at the plate.
Mets pass part one of their test.
This was a grind for both teams tonight. Every pitch mattered, every situation had implications, and the Mets looked rather polished against a great ball club in St. Louis. It’s just one game, but it was a good, fun, old fashioned National League game which felt like a playoff game. And the Mets passed the first part of a tough test with good win tonight.
Other notes from Monday:
John Mayberry Jr. delivered the game winning single in the bottom of the 14th inning.
Harvey has now allowed one run or less in 23 of his first 44 career starts – he has a 16 inning scoreless streak running.
Following Familia’s blown save, Hansel Robles, Erik Goeddel, Alex Torres and Carlos Torres combined for five innings of one-hit ball.
The Mets played their first extra-inning game of the year on Monday. They were the last team to play an extra-inning game this season.
Mets pitching has allowed three total runs in their last three games.
Their 16-4 record at home is the best in baseball.
Just Mets 