A quality start at last

To quote one of Gary Cohen’s most famous calls that was a topic of discussion in tonight’s broadcast: “The impossible has happened!” This time, instead of Bartolo Colón going deep, “the impossible” refers to a Mets pitcher throwing a quality start. Pitching on eight days rest, Kodai Senga did just that, getting the win in the Mets’ 1-0 victory over the Rockies in the opening game of this three-game weekend series at Citi Field.

Senga pitched six scoreless innings in tonight’s victory, yielding just two hits and striking out four batters along the way. The only issue for Senga, who was pumping high octane fastballs all night to compliment his ghost fork, was walks. In two different innings—the first and the third—he issued two consecutive walks with two outs. Luckily, it did not come back to bite him either time and he was assisted by some good defense behind him, particularly by Brandon Nimmo, who made a nice diving catch in the top of the fifth to rob Ezequiel Tovar of a hit.

Nimmo got things done on both sides of the ball tonight, hitting a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth that represented the only run of the game for either side. Other than that, Anthony Senzatela matched Senga in his return from ACL surgery, giving up just three hits in five innings of work and striking out three. The Mets’ bats were quiet against the Rockies’ bullpen as well; Nimmo and Brett Baty hit one-out doubles in the sixth and seventh innings respectively, but the Mets were unable to drive them in.

Meanwhile, Drew Smith relieved Senga and worked around a one-out single to pitch a convincing, scoreless seventh. But, things got tense for David Robertson and Adam Ottavino in the eighth and ninth innings. Robertson issued two walks in the eighth to put the go-ahead run on base and Ryan McMahon scorched a ball 108 mph off the bat that struck the pinch runner Brenton Doyle for the final out of the inning—Lady Luck smiling on the Mets to help them out of the inning. In the ninth, Randal Grichuk hit a leadoff single off Ottavino, stole second, and advanced to third on a perfect sacrifice bunt by Harold Castro. But, Ottavino bounced back to strike out the pinch hitter Mike Moustakas and Charlie Blackmon hit one on the nose, but Starling Marte came streaking in from right field to catch the sinking liner to end the game and secure the narrow victory.

With this nail-biter, the Mets snapped three-game losing streak and in turn snapped the Rockies’ four-game winning streak. It is the first 1-0 game the Mets have won all season. Tomorrow they will try to get a winning streak going with Tylor Megill taking the mound against Austin Gomber.

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What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Kodai Senga, +34.3% WPA
Big Mets loser: Starling Marte, -8.5% WPA
Mets pitchers: +68.9% WPA
Mets hitters: -18.9% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Brandon Nimmo’s solo homer in the fourth, +14.2% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Randal Grichuk’s leadoff single off Adam Ottavino in the ninth, -11.5% WPA