Game 52 of 162
Mets 5 Rockies 2 (Coors Field, Denver, CO)
Mets record: 27-25
Mets streak: Won 2
WP - Max Scherzer (4-2)
LP - Connor Seabold (1-2)
SV - Adam Ottavino (5)
Seat on the Korner:
We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.
The resurrection of Max Scherzer continues. His seven innings lifted the Mets to their second straight victory as they defeated the Colorado Rockies 5-2 on Friday night.
Need to Know
Max Scherzer now has a victory in 29 of the 30 current major league parks after his first victory at Coors Field tonight. The last one left? PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
The Mets are now 13-0 when they get six innings from their starting pitcher.
Scherzer walked nobody in his seven innings of work, striking out eight and giving up six hits and just one run on a home run to Ryan McMahon.
Brandon Nimmo was a sparkplug tonight with three walks and two triples. It was the first time Nimmo hit two triples in a game.
Francisco Lindor cashed in on Nimmo's production by driving Nimmo home three times, and himself once on his two run HR in the first inning. Lindor's sac fly in the 9th was not your routine fly out as Jurickson Profar had to make a running, sliding catch on it. Lindor would end up with two hits on the night.
Brett Baty also had himself two hits, going 2-for-4 and driving in the third Mets run with an opposite field single.
Adam Ottavino's save was the 8th time he faced his former organization, and he has yet to give up a run against the Rockies.
Turning Point
This was a fairly straight line of a game as the Mets had the lead the entire way. But things got hairy in the 9th. Brooks Raley came in after David Robertson pitched the 8th, and he walked Ryan McMahon to start the inning, then after getting Randal Grichuk to line out, walked Nolan Jones. So Buck Showalter brought in Adam Ottavino to get the save. Alan Trejo singled off Eduardo Escobar's glove to load the bases with one out.
Or at least it should have loaded the bases with one out.
Nolan Jones did the Mets a huge favor by turning to far off second even as McMahon was clearly holding at third base. Ottavino would strike out Mike Moustakas to end the game.
Three Keys
Scherzer's great outing can be traced to his command. He was all over the edges early in the game, and that command enabled him to get swings and misses. Of his 102 pitches, 74 were strikes. This enabled Scherzer to solve the two problems he had earlier in the year: Getting swings and misses, and being too predictable with his pitch sequencing. Of his eight strikeouts, seven of them were swinging, and they came on a variety of pitches. (Two four seamers, two cutters, one on a curveball, one on a slider, and one on a changeup. The caught looking was also on a changeup.)
When a team is going well, they play smart and alert. The turning point play with Nolan Jones getting caught off second was a horrid play by him, but the Mets deserve credit for being alert. Escobar could have sulked after having the ball clank off his glove. But he kept his head in the game and alerted Lindor to throw the ball behind the runner and second. Jeff McNeil also paid attention well enough to make sure he covered the bag. That's a play that good teams make when presented with an opportunity born out of bad baseball.
It's amazing what a team can do when they get an early lead. In 2022, it seemed like the Mets made a habit out of scoring in the first inning. This season, not so much. However lately, the Mets have started to turn the tide on that. Tonight's start, a walk by Nimmo and a two run HR by Lindor, made such a huge difference. I still say the most key part of the season will be how the starting rotation fares, if not more specifically how Max Scherzer fares. But scoring first goes a long way to settling down a starting pitcher nine times out of ten.
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