Game 34 of 162
Rockies 5 Mets 2 (Citi Field, Flushing, NY)
Mets record: 17-17
Mets streak: Lost 1
WP - Austin Gomber (3-4)
LP - Tylor Megill (3-2)
SV - Pierce Johnson (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.
Ezequiel Tovar went 3-for-4, scored two runs, and hit a two run homer off Stephen Nogosek in the 6th inning to put the game away and give the Rockies a 5-2 victory.
Need to Know
Austin Gomber had a 12.12 ERA on April 19th. Since then, he pitched five shutout innings in Cleveland, gave up one run in six innings against Arizona, and today he pitched six innings and gave up two runs on five hits and two walks to keep the Rockies in the game and give them a chance to win.
Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor had two hits each and combined for four of the seven Mets hits. Lindor also drove in a run with an RBI groundout.
Tylor Megill was all over the place from the start, giving up runs in the first two innings, and ending up with a line of 4 and 2/3's innings, three runs on six hits and three walks, while striking out four in 96 pitches.
Turning Point
Megill was almost out of the fifth inning. He had given up two walks with one out, but struck out C.J. Cron on a slider for the second out. He faced Elias Diaz with two outs and runners on first and second. Diaz had already touched up Megill for a two out RBI in the first on a fastball that was middle up. So with a 2-1 count in the 5th, Megill went back to the slider. But unlike the slider on the outside edge that struck out Cron, he threw one down the middle to Diaz.
The Rockies wouldn't give up the lead the rest of the game.
Three Keys
The wildness for Megill was odd because the home plate umpire, Alex MacKay, had a large strike zone all day. He gave a few inches off the outer half to Megill in the top of the first, and gave a few inches off the inner half to Gomber in the bottom of the first. MacKay's large zone would come into play later.
Megill gave up a run in the first that was spawned from a leadoff walk, which will kill you more often than not. Nogosek gave up a four pitch leadoff walk to Harold Castro, the 7th place hitter. Then he threw two more balls to Tovar before clipping the inside corner with a fastball (maybe too far inside, but again ... MacKay's strike zone.) So with a 2-1 count, Nogosek threw a sweeper that didn't sweep.
The Mets had one chance to get even. In the 8th inning, Jake Bird got the first two outs in his second inning of work. Then he gave up a single to Lindor, and walked Pete Alonso to bring up Jeff McNeil, pinch hitting for Tommy Pham. Bud Black decided to keep the righty in to face McNeil, even though there was a lefty up in the 'pen ...
Bird's first pitch to McNeil is a bit outside, but called a strike because MacKay's strike zone was generous. Then, McNeil went up hacking as the zone was big. Bird then nailed him with two curveballs in the dirt that McNeil chased to end the last best threat the Mets had. It could have gone sideways with Black not bringing in the lefty to face McNeil, but for the Rockies, it worked out.
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