Just Mets

The Mets defeated the Nationals by the score of 2-1 on Friday night in 12 innings at Citi Field. Here are my takeaways from the win…

A tough, stingy game from both teams.

Both teams played a stubborn brand of baseball. Neither team gave in at any point during the night, both teams pitched really well and neither side really had many opportunities over the course of the game.

The Nationals bullpen completely stymied the Mets all night long. They were completely mismatched really from the moment Gio Gonzalez exited this game when it looked like an implosion was imminent in the fifth inning. Of course, it didn’t help when Terry Collins allowed those mismatches to take place, especially late in this game.

But the Mets won, and that’s all that matters.

Romance in baseball.

What a week for Wilmer Flores. Two nights ago, he was balling on the field thinking he had been traded away from his home.

48 hours later, he’s the hero. He drove in the first run for the club in the fourth inning. Then, he hit the game winning home run for the Mets tonight, hit the biggest home run of his life to date, and drove home a tremendous win for the club that did not want him on Wednesday night.

The show of support from the fans tonight was tremendous. He got an ovation in the first inning after a diving stop, and it was a storybook ending to seal an amazing story for him this week.

It was a magical moment for a super kid, and a trooper. He put Wednesday’ awkward debacle behind him, and made Friday an unforgettable night. It couldn’t have happened at a better time to a better person.

What a story. How can you not be emotional for the kid after an ending like that? It was such a special moment, one which won’t be forgotten.

On point.

The Mets played a rock solid game tonight, and they needed to thanks to their inability to score more than one run against the Nationals pitching, which was stabilized when Matt Williams inserted Tanner Roark in the fifth inning. They played excellent defense all around the field, from Wilmer Flores to Juan Lagares to Juan Uribe, didn’t give away outs and found a way to win.

A little late, but it worked.

The good ol’ Matt Harvey.

That was as good as a performance for Harvey in a real long time. He came out clearly with a purpose to shut the door on the Nationals, who are a little more tooled today than they were ten days ago in Washington. But he was firing strike after strike with his fastball on the corners, which was consistently in the upper-90s with a dandy of a slider falling off the table on the outside edge.

This formula got retired the first 16 batters to face him, which actually had his streak up to 30 against the Nationals dating back to last week. It’s too bad that wasn’t over one game.

But he was magnificent tonight, and pitched like the ace he’s been billed to be throughout his young career, coming through with a clutch performance in a game the Mets had to get.

Unfortunately, he was bitten by a really poor call in the eighth inning when Clint Robinson was able to sell being hit by a pitch with one out, and the umpires somehow confirmed it after a review. Then, Danny Espinosa pinch ran for Robinson, and Yunel Escobar drove him in with a two out single to tie things up.

It’s a shame, because this was a winning performance by Harvey. He did nothing wrong, and the team and the manager did nothing wrong, either.

I had absolutely no problem with Terry Collins leaving Harvey in the game to try and get Escobar. That’s his horse, and he rode him. He was throwing 97 mph after pitch 100, and he overthrew a fastball and left it over the middle. Escobar grounded a single and that was that.

A must-win for the Mets, which was sealed.

There was no way the Mets could lose this game. They could not go home tonight four games out of first. It just wouldn’t have been acceptable.

The club made sure that didn’t happen.

They played a buttoned up game behind their ace (one of them anyway), and played a stubborn game with energy and excitement from the electric crowd on hand tonight. They knew what was at stake, played to win, and got the job done to pull back within two games of first place.

Other notes from Friday:

Ruben Tejada went 2-for-5 on Friday – he’s hitting .312 over his last 23 games.

The Mets had two hits in 6 1/3 innings against the Nationals bullpen, one of which was Flores’ game winning homer in the 12th inning.

Flores home run in the 13th inning was his first home run since June 12.