Mets vs Padres Recap: Reed escapes disaster

The Mets came close to blowing a lead in the ninth, but persevered and pulled out a 5-3 win against the Padres at Petco Park. After getting a stellar starting pitching performance out of Jacob deGrom, Addison Reed chipped away at his trade value, but managed to get the save.

deGrom won his eighth straight victory, and continued to look like one of the elite starting pitchers in all of baseball. Over eight innings, deGrom struck out eight, walking two, and scattering five hits. He had a shutout going into the seventh inning, when Hunter Renfroe hit a solo home run, and put the Padres on the board. In the eighth, a pair of doubles by José Pírela and Carlos Asuaje plated a second run. deGrom finished with 100 pitches, and left with a 5-2 lead.

That lead started in the bottom of the second inning, when Wilmer Flores hit a Clayton Richard pitch over the fence. In the third, Asdrubal Cabrera singled and was driven in by a Yoenis Cespedes triple. Cespedes himself score on a Jay Bruce single, putting them up 3-0.

In the fourth, Michael Conforto doubled to right, and was moved over to third on a Cabrera ground out. After an intentional walk to Cespedes, Bruce hit another RBI single, plating Conforto.

In the top of the eighth, Jose Reyes hit an infield single, which is challenged, but not overturned, by the Padres. He then stole second base for his 500th career stolen base, and then scored from second on a Travis d’Arnaud single.

Reed entered the game in the ninth, and gave up a lead-off home run to Renfroe, his second of the game. After inducing a ground out from Cory Spangenberg, there were back to back singles by Manuel Margot and Hector Sanchez, bringing the winning run to the plate. Jabari Blash entered the game as a pinch hitter, and just missed a game-winning three-run home run by mere inches, but the ball went just foul. Reed eventually struck him out and got a line outfrom Matt Szczur to end the game.

Seth Lugo goes for the Mets tonight against Jhoulys Chacin in the second game in the series.

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What’s WPA?

Big winners: Jacob deGrom, +26.6% WPA, Yoenis Cespedes, +11.5% WPA
Big losers: None
Teh aw3s0mest play: Yoenis Cespedes’s triple in the third inning
Teh sux0rest play: Hector Sanchez singled in the ninth inning
Total pitcher WPA: +30.3% WPA
Total batter WPA: +19.7% WPA
GWRBI!: Jay Bruce