Mets vs. Rockies Recap: Lu-goes deep

Rockies' starter Tyler Chatwood was incredibly wild from the outset Saturday, walking Michael Conforto and Asdrubal Cabrera to start the game. One batter later, Jay Bruce blasted a rare offering in the strike zone just to the left of the Home Run Apple, giving the Mets an early lead en route to a 9-3 win, their second straight blowout victory over the second Wild Card-leading Rockies.

After surrendering one more walk, Chatwood was pulled due to an injury concern, making way for Chris Rusin. Rusin proved no more successful, surrendering an RBI single to Travis d’Arnaud as the Mets wound up batting around in the first inning.

The Mets’ offense added three more runs in the bottom of the second inning, with all of the damage coming with two outs and no one on. T.J. Rivera continued his hot stretch with an RBI single, and Lucas Duda followed with a two-run double.

From there, Seth Lugo took over the game—the starter was in a groove early, and added his first career home run in the bottom of the third inning. The Rockies eventually got to Lugo in a potentially costly sixth inning for the Mets, as Yoenis Cespedes jammed his right leg on an awkward dive for what turned into a Nolan Arenado double. Early reports state the injury isn’t serious, but Mets fans can be forgiven for not exactly resting easy on that report.

The Rockies got another run off of a tiring Lugo in the seventh on a Charlie Blackmon RBI triple, before Paul Sewald came in to kick off a rare perfect night for the Mets’ bullpen, as he, Jerry Blevins, and Addison Reed pitched the final 2.1 innings, striking out six. Jose Reyes capped off the scoring with a home run in the bottom of the eighth—his recent hot streak will unfortunately mean Amed Rosario will likely need to continue remaining unsurprised and ready for the foreseeable future.

The Mets have now taken the first two games of this series, outscoring the Rockies 23-5 over the two games. Depending upon your point of view, the victories could represent either the start of a miraculous second-half run or the frustrating delay of a necessary fire sale.

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Win Probability Added

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What’s WPA?

Big winners: Jay Bruce, +23.1% WPA, Seth Lugo, +8.6% WPA
Big losers: None
The aw3s0mest play: Jay Bruce three-run home run in first inning, +22.4%
The sux0rest play: Yoenis Cespedes fly out to center field in first inning, -5.2%
Total pitcher WPA: 10.6% WPA+
Total batter WPA: 39.4% WPA+
GWRBI!: Travis d’Arnaud