Mets leave the desert with a series win behind strong pitching

The Mets were in danger of losing their first series of the year after splitting the first two games against the Arizona Diamondbacks. To prevent that from happening, they turned to Tylor Megill, who has been fabulous since filling in for Jacob deGrom.

The Mets handed him a lead early when Mark Canha got things started with a single and an error, which allowed him to reach second base. Francisco Lindor drove him in and Megill had a 1-0 lead to work with when he took the mound in the bottom of the inning. He took the slim lead and ran with it until the fourth when he gave up a solo home run to Christian Walker, who had the knack for going yard this series.

With the game tied at one apiece, it became a pitchers’ duel between Megill and Madison Bumgarner, whom the Mets notoriously struggle against. The Mets caught a break when Bumgarner was lifted in the sixth inning and Starling Marte manufactured the go ahead run on his own. At times this season, his adventures on the basepaths have been a mix of Jonathan Villar and Daniel Murphy, but his aggressiveness paid off after he doubled with one out in the sixth. He attempted to steal third, and the throw from the catcher sailed into left field, allowing Marte to jog home with the go-ahead run.

The Mets added on in the seventh after the Arizona bullpen suffered a meltdown. They scored two runs in the inning with the help of two walks and two hit batsmen. James McCann got hit to load the bases, Travis Jankowski worked a walk to force in a run, then Marte was also hit to bring home the second run of the inning.

Now given a bigger lead to work with Megill went back out there for the seventh and came oh so close to completing it, but with two outs, he gave up back to back hits which brought home Arizona’s second run. That ended his day on the mound, but it was still a productive outing. He struck out seven and walked one to drop his ERA to 2.35 for the season.

Seth Lugo looked stellar in relief of Megill, but the Mets bullpen was stretched a bit thin from the previous game, so some insurance runs with two-outs in the eighth were met with great relief. J.D. Davis had a good day at the plate and capped it off with an opposite field home run while serving as the DH. A double and an error followed which brought home the sixth and final run for the team. With the expanded lead, that allowed the team to give Edwin Diaz the day off. Joely Rodríguez instead got the ninth and pitched a clean inning to give the Amazin’s yet another series victory.

Box scores

ESPN
MLB

Win Probability Added

Fangraphs.com

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Starling Marte, +19.5% WPA
Big Mets loser: Pete Alonso, -8.1% WPA
Mets pitchers: 26.4% WPA
Mets hitters: 23.6% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Starling Marte stolen base and run scored in sixth
Teh sux0rest play: Christian Walker home run in the fourth

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