The Mets made an improbable ninth-inning comeback and Kodai Senga struck out 12 batters as they beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2-1, on Wednesday night.
Here are the takeaways…
-Senga got into trouble in the first inning, giving up two singles and Brett Baty snagging a liner that could have gone into the outfield. However, a well-timed double play got the right-hander out of the opening frame.
After the first, Senga would settle down and get a lot of Diamondback batters out with his fastball. He would even get two batters striking out looking with the fastball in the fourth inning. In the fifth, a leadoff single and stolen base gave Arizona a man on second with no outs. Senga would come back to strike out the next two batters and get a fly out to end the threat. After a clean sixth, Senga would make his lone mistake, a hanging breaking ball to Christian Walker that would end up in the seats.
Senga would start the eighth inning — the first time he’s done that in his major league career — and pitch a 1-2-3 inning. His final line: eight innings (106 pitches/71 strikes), four hits, one run and one walk. He also struck out 12 batters, tying a career high.
– Francisco Alvarez saved the Mets in the ninth inning. After 8.2 innings of offensive struggles, he hit a solo shot to tie the game at 1-1 by going with a sinker on the outside part of the plate. It’s his second home run in as many games. Alvarez now has five game-tying or go-ahead home runs in the sixth inning or later this season, which is the most in the majors. He finished 2-for-4.
After a Baty single, Mark Canha launched a triple to give the Mets a 2-1 lead. It’s Canha’s first triple of the season and he finished the game 1-for-2 with two walks. The Mets would fail to bring Canha home after Nimmo walked and Tommy Pham hit a slow hopper that took a nice play from Ketel Marte to end the inning.
– David Robertson, coming off throwing nine pitches and a save on Tuesday, came on in the bottom of the ninth. After getting the leadoff man to fly out to left, Corbin Carroll hit a grounder that bounced off of Robertson and right to Pete Alonso at first for the second out. He then got Walker to strike out swinging on the seventh pitch of the at-bat to pick up his 13th save of the season.
– The Mets offense would struggle to get that clutch hit early on. They had a chance in the fourth with runners on second and third and two outs, pocket Jeff McNeil grounded out to end the threat. In the fifth, the Mets had runners on first and second with one out Brandon Nimmo popped out and Tommy Pham lined out sharply to third baseman Evan Longoria.
Nimmo, Francisco Lindor and Alonso combined to go 0-for-12 with a walk and three strikeouts. The only offense before the ninth inning came on a Pham single — he finished 1-for-4 with a walk — and a Starling Marte (1-for-3, BB) single.
Highlights
What’s next
The Mets wrap up their three-game series against the Diamondback on Thursday at 9:40 pm
Carlos Carrasco (2-3, 5.94 ERA) will be on the mound for the Mets and he’ll go up against RHP Ryne Nelson (5-4, 4.67 ERA).