Pirates 7 Mets 4 (Citi Field, Flushing, NY)
Mets record: 54-66
Mets streak: Lost 1
WP - Colin Selby (1-0)
LP - Jose Butto (0-2)
SV - David Bednar (25)
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.
This was a tough one to choose. A few Pirates had nice games, a lot of Pirates walked. We're going with Bucs catcher Jason Delay, whose two run double keyed a 6 run 7th inning which gave the Pirates a 6-1 lead and turned out to be the hit that put the game out of reach.
But considering how many Pirates hitters the Mets walked (10), the people who decided that a walk should be four balls instead of the nine balls it used to be should share the seat tonight. To the best of my research, one of those people is H.D. McKnight, the commissioner of the American Association in 1889 who agreed to make that change.
Without McKnight, we'd still be in the 7th inning at Citi Field.
Need to Know
Francisco Alvarez batted cleanup for the first time in his career.
Brandon Nimmo's leadoff home run was the 10th leadoff homer of his career.
The Mets pitching staff walked 10 batters and threw a total of 214 pitches.
D.J. Stewart hit a pinch hit home run to make it 7-3 and would finish the night with two hits. Jonathan Arauz hit a solo HR to make it back-to-back, but the Mets would get no further than 7-4.
Turning Point
The entire 7th inning.
With the score 1-1 and Jose Butto on the mound, it went like this:
A walk to Andrew McCutchen.
A double by Connor Joe.
Henry Davis strikes out.
A walk to Liover Peguero.
Then, Grant Hartwig came in for Butto with the bases loaded and one out. It didn't get much better:
Jack Suwinski walked to force in a run.
Hartwig then hit Jared Triolo to force in a run
Francisco Alvarez committed a passed ball to bring in another run.
Then came Delay's big hit to make it 6-1:
Then after Ke'Bryan Hayes flew out, Bryan Reynolds hit a "triple" to bring home run number 7 for the Pirates.
Three Keys
Peterson's not so great night: The rest of this season is an audition for 2024 for David Peterson. Tonight wasn't a great chapter. He threw 91 pitches, but in only 3 and 2/3's innings, giving up three hits and striking out five, but most alarming was the six walks. Somehow, he only gave up one run as he got some key double plays to get him out of jams, but nobody was fooled into thinking that this was sustainable. Peterson left his pitches up, and most of them way up. His problem before his demotion was that he was wild in the strike zone. Tonight, he was more wild than that, and it cost him.
Nimmo is Zimmo: Brandon Nimmo is red hot. Tuesday marked the fourth straight game where he has had two hits as he raised his average to .263 in that span. Tonight was also Nimmo's second straight game with a home run.
Apropos of nothing: Because sometimes the most important moments of the night don't necessarily happen in the major leagues, Brett Baty hit a grand slam tonight for Syracuse.
The key was that the Mets could have used those four runs tonight.
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