Just Mets

The Mets came from behind to defeat the Nationals by the score of 7-2 on Tuesday night at Nationals Park in Washington. Here are my takeaways from the win…

Jake deGreat.

What a great effort tonight by the All-Star. He was brilliant for six innings, needing just 82 pitches while dazzling the Nationals with blazing fastballs on each corner, and a devastating slider and change-up diving down and out of the zone.

He made one, “bad pitch,” which really wasn’t bad at all. After allowing a lead off double to Yunel Escobar in the fifth inning, deGrom had nearly pitched himself out of the jam. But while he painted the outside edge with a 98 mph fastball, Met killer Wilson Ramos took it over the fence to the opposite field to give Washington a brief 2-1 lead.

It felt so devastating at the time, because the expectation was that homer was the game. The Mets offense stinks so bad, it was a reasonable assumption to make.

I know I’m not the only one who believed that, either. Thank goodness we were all wrong.

Taking advantage.

The Mets actually got a break in the seventh inning. And, they actually took advantage. But of course it was filled with weirdness.

Wilmer Flores singled to lead off the inning. Then, Kirk Nieuwenhuis reached on an error by first baseman Clint Robinson which cost Washington two bases.

After Kevin Plawecki popped out, Terry Collins made a very gutsy call. He lifted deGrom after throwing only 82 pitches, and inserted Eric Campbell, who hadn’t had a pinch hit all year, and was actually batting 30 points lower than deGrom entering the plate appearance.

Campbell somehow came through with the two-run single to plate two runs, give the Mets the lead and put deGrom on the long side of his magnificent effort.

Then the Mets cashed in on an error by Matt den Dekker, who threw the ball away on a leadoff single from Kevin Plawecki which allowed the Mets catcher to reach third. After Michael Cuddyer walked as a pinch hitter, Juan Lagares struck out, but Curtis Granderson came through with a run scoring single to give the Mets the all-important fourth run in this game.

They came away with three more thanks to RBI singles from Ruben Tejada and Daniel Murphy, and an RBI groundout from Wilmer Flores.

It’s not often these days the Mets actually get hits with runners in scoring position, but they came through with three big ones which gave the Mets all four of their runs.

See what happens when the club executes? Runs score!

Finding a way.

The Mets had to win today. Period, end of story. There was no exception to that.

It took guts, especially with how they fell behind midway in this game and things looking so dire considering how anemic their offense had been. But while the fans and many in the media seemed to be resigned to another empty loss, the club was not, and they willed themselves to a very important win (and piled it on in the ninth) to force a rubber game tomorrow afternoon.

There have been times this team has shown that kind of character this season, especially during moments situations looked so bleak as they did on Tuesday.

Hopefully this is the kind of win that can start that momentum train up for them again, and start moving the club ahead again.

Other notes from Tuesday:

The Mets entered the game 4-for-their-last-72 with runners in scoring position over their last ten games – they went 5-for-14 with runners in scoring position on Tuesday.

Tuesday was the first time since July 8 the a Mets have had multiple hits with runners in scoring position.

The Mets improved to 41-3 when leading after seven innings, and 4-35 when trailing after six innings.

The Mets are now 35-5 when scoring four runs or more.

Ruben Tejada extended his hitting streak to nine games – he’s 13-for-39 during that span.

DeGrom improved to 5-1 with a 0.81 ERA on the road in 2015, and earned his first career win against Washington on Tuesday.

The Mets came from behind to win for the 22nd time in 2015.