A Taylor-made win

The Mets came back - twice - against a very, very good Dodgers team to split the LA portion of their season series with two games apiece. The 5-4 win was one of the most thrilling of the season, and certainly more nail-biting and joyous than a June game has any business being.

The Mets got into trouble early on when starter Trevor Williams gave up a towering two-run shot to Trea Turner in the bottom of the first. However, after that, Williams settled down and gave the Mets 5 quality innings, giving up no more runs, striking out five and walking none. Williams continues to do more than the Mets could have hoped for as the eighth starter on the depth chart.

The Mets got on the board with a Starling Marte solo home run in the third off Dodgers starter Julio Urias. Urias went five and a third innings, giving up just three hits, walking three and striking out four.

That would remain the score until the top of the eighth. Back to back doubles to Francisco Lindor (of the ground rule variety) and Pete Alonso (of the standard variety) would tie the game. J.D. Davis pushed Alonso to third on a groundout, Mark Canah was hit by a pitch, and Eduardo Escobar pushed through a long at bat to hit a ball to the warning track, allowing Alonso to tag up with the go-ahead run.

A walk to Luis Guillorme put two on for Tomas Nido, who lined a single to right field, scoring Mark Canha and putting the Mets up 4-2.

Buck Showalter decided to bring Edwin Diaz into the game in the eighth inning to face the top of the Dodgers’ lineup, which may be the best 1-3 in the entire game of baseball. It was absolutely the right move; two fly outs and a strikeout, lousy with sliders, did in the top of the order with just 15 pitches sent the Mets to the ninth with the lead.

After Craig Kimbrel kept the Mets off the board in the top of the ninth, Seth Lugo entered the game for the ninth inning. He was greeted rudely by Will Smith, who took the third pitch he saw to the opposite field for a solo home run. After two ground outs into the shift, Chris Taylor hit a lazy Lugo curve that looked to tie the game, but landed just foul of the pole in left field. Taylor, on a full count, pulled another curve to left field for a double. Eddie Alvarez, in his first starting assignment for Los Angeles, hit the first pitch from Lugo up the middle to drive in Taylor and tie the game and send it to extra innings.

Baseball giveth, and baseball taketh away: a diving hit from Davis was booted badly by Taylor, allowing ghost-runner Alonso to score from second and put the Mets back out in front. The Mets couldn’t score again in the tenth, after Canha was struck out and Davis was doubled off second after making a ghastly read on a soft liner.

Trusting a game in extras to Adonis Medina is not how the Mets wrote it up in spring, but Medina was solid. After Turner reached base on a strange catcher’s interference call and stole second, the Dodgers had men on second and third with two outs. But Medina struck out Smith to end the game and split the series with a very, very good Dodgers team.

As mentioned on the SNY broadcast, his was the first game since the ‘Chip Ambres’ game in 2007 that the Mets came back to win a game when down entering the eighth inning.

What a game. See ya tomorrow in San Diego.

SB Nation GameThreads

Amazin’ Avenue
True Blue LA

Box scores

ESPN
MLB.com

Win Probability Added

Fangraphs.com

What’s WPA?

Big winner: Adonis Media, +43.4% (!) WPA
Big loser: Seth Lugo, -41.3% (!) WPA
Total pitcher WPA: 19.3% WPA
Total batter WPA: 30.7% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Pete Alonso’s eighth inning double, +24.1% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Eddie Alvarez’s RBI single -42.3% WPA