The Mets had a bad week last week, but this week—a strange one by baseball scheduling standards—got off to a very good start. In the first of two home games against the Baltimore Orioles, Bartolo Colon was excellent, and the Mets won.
In seven-and-two-thirds innings of work, Colon struck out nine, walked none, and gave up just one run, which came on a solo home run by Manny Machado leading off the eighth inning. Of his 97 pitches, 71 were strikes. In six starts this season, Colon now has a 2.90 ERA and 3.13 FIP, good numbers even in an extreme pitching era.
The Mets scored all three of their runs in the fourth inning thanks mostly to a bunch of doubles against Orioles starter Bud Norris. Lucas Duda led off with a double and scored on a one-out Daniel Murphy single. Wilmer Flores doubled, moving Murphy to third, and Kevin Plawecki doubled, too, to bring both baserunners home. That completed the Mets’ scoring, but those three runs held up.
While Colon got a couple of outs after giving up the Machado home run, Terry Collins pulled him in favor of Carlos Torres with Adam Jones due up. Torres got him to ground out to end the inning. After a scoreless bottom of the eighth, Jeurys Familia came on for the save and allowed a solo home run to Chris Davis but proceeded to retire the next three batters he faced in order.
Aside from the good pitching and string of doubles, the most notable part of the game was another very nice catch by Juan Lagares. He and Michael Cuddyer very nearly collided on the play, but Cuddyer managed to get out of the way just in time. Lagares was shaken up a bit after the play, but he remained in the game and looked alright.
The Mets have a chance to sweep the two-game series on Wednesday night, though "sweep" seems a bit strong for a pair of games. Ubaldo Jimenez is scheduled to start for Baltimore, while Jacob deGrom gets the start for the Mets and look to put his last two outings behind him.
SB Nation GameThreads
* Amazin' Avenue GameThread
* Camden Chat GameThread
Win Probability Added
Big winners: Bartolo Colon, +29.7% WPA, Daniel Murphy, +18.3% WPA
Big losers: none
Teh aw3s0mest play: Daniel Murphy’s run-scoring single in the fourth, +12.4% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Kevin Plawecki grounds into a double play in the second, -9.0% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: +36.4% WPA
Total batter WPA: +13.6% WPA
GWRBI!: Kevin Plawecki