Mark Canha gave the Mets two key RBI doubles and Pete Alonso walked it off for the Mets in the ninth.
The Mets beat the Rockies 7-6 in walk-off fashion to win their second straight against Colorado at Citi Field. After the Mets took an early lead, the Rockies clawed back to tie it, the Mets took another tenuous lead, which was blown by Mychal Givens, and then Mark Canha tied it in the eighth and Pete Alonso won it in the ninth.
Brett Baty snapped a scoreless tie in the bottom of the third inning with his first Citi Field home run, but other than that, Chris Bassitt and Chad Kuhl were locked in a bit of a pitcher’s duel in the early innings—both benefitting from double play balls to erase baserunners.
Chris Bassitt did not have his strikeout stuff in this outing; he only struck out one batter all evening. But, he efficiently induced soft contact to make it pretty easily through the first five frames. The Mets extended their lead to 3-0 in the fifth when Starling Marte drove in Mark Canha (who was hit by a pitch) and James McCann (who singled) with an RBI triple.
However, things unraveled for Bassitt rather quickly in the sixth and the Rockies tied up the game at three runs apiece. Wynton Bernard led off the inning with a bloop single perfectly placed behind first base. Ryan McMahon then walked and Brendan Rodgers missed a home run by inches by rifling a ball off the orange line in right center to score Bernard and McMahon to bring the Rockies within a run. Then with two outs, C.J. Cron singled to even the score at 3-3.
The Mets, having chased Kuhl from the game, immediately answered off Lucas Gilbreath in the bottom of the sixth. Now facing the lefty, Darin Ruf pinch hit for Tyler Naquin and drew a one-out walk. Jeff McNeil then singled and Mark Canha doubled off the wall in left center to give the Mets a 4-3 lead. It was an RBI knock that should have netted two runs, but the Rockies executed a perfect throw to the cutoff man and another perfect throw home to nab McNeil at the plate to assist in limiting the rally to just the one run.
After his rough sixth inning, Bassitt bounced back nicely in the seventh and retired the Rockies in order, which allowed him to come back out to the mound to start the eighth inning. However, his leash was short. Charlie Blackmon led off the inning by reaching on an infield hit and that was enough for Buck Showalter to pull the plug in favor of Mychal Givens. That decision played out poorly, as a C.J. Cron broken-bat single snuck through to advance the pinch runner Garrett Hampson to third and then Givens hit José Iglesias to load the bases. It looked like Givens might escape the jam, as he bounced back to strike out Randal Grichuk, but then he gave up a bases-clearing double to Elias Díaz to give the Rockies a 6-4 lead.
Fireballer Carlos Estévez came in the game for the eighth and promptly struck out the first two batters he faced and it seemed like this would be a back-breaker for the Mets. But with two outs, the Mets caught a break: Darin Ruf grounded a ball sharply to Ryan McMahon, who missed it with his glove and allowed the ball to clank off his heel and into right field for an error that allowed Ruf to reach first safely. Jeff McNeil then singled to put the tying run on base and Mark Canha came through yet again with a double down the left field line to score both Ruf and McNeil to tie the game.
Connor Grey then sat down and Edwin Díaz got up. Sometimes when it comes to balls ricocheting off body parts, Lady Luck giveth and Lady Luck taketh away; with one out, Ryan McMahon grounded a ball sharply back toward the mound that caromed off Díaz’s leg and dribbled far enough away from Pete Alonso that McMahon made it all the way to second to put the go-ahead run in scoring position. Unfazed, Díaz struck out Brendan Rodgers and got Garrett Hampson to fly out to right to give the Mets a chance to walk it off against Daniel Bard.
And walk it off they did. With one out, Brandon Nimmo drew a four-pitch walk. Bard then hit Starling Marte with a pitch to advance the winning run into scoring position. It looked like Francisco Lindor might be the hero today, as he lined a pitch hard to right field, but Sam Hilliard made a fantastic game-saving grab on the ball, which left things to the team leader in RBIs. Pete Alonso pulled an 0-2 pitch to find the hole between third and short to win the game for the Mets.
SB Nation GameThreads
Box scores
Win Probability Added
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23974447/chart__32_.png)
Fangraphs.com
Big Mets winner: Mark Canha, +57.8% WPA
Big Mets loser: Mychal Givens, -61.9% WPA
Mets pitchers: -45.7% WPA
Mets hitters: +95.7% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Mark Canha’s game-tying double in the bottom of the eighth inning, +43.7% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Elias Díaz’s bases-clearing, go-ahead double in the top of the eighth inning, -58.2% WPA