The Mets will live on to see another day of baseball.
Behind six solid innings from ace Jacob deGrom, and an offense that finally woke up from its catatonic state, the Met held off the San Diego Padres 7-3, Saturday night in Game 2 of the NL Wild Card series.
deGrom and the Mets set the tone early. The two-time Cy Young Award winner was hitting 103 mph on the radar gun in the top of the first inning as he overpowered Jurickson Profar, Juan Soto and Manny Machado in the top of the first inning.
— New York Mets (@Mets) October 8, 2022
Francisco Lindor later gave the Mets a 1-0 lead in the bottom half of the inning.
Later on it was Pete Alonso who put the Mets back in front with a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth as a quick and necessary response to San Diego tying the game at two.
The Mets would never trail again. The bottom of the seventh inning was highlighted by San Diego reliever Adrian Morejon’s inability to get throw strikes, and the Mets increasing patience at the plate as New York plated four runs to put the game away.
Jeff McNeil’s two run double, plated both Lindor and Alonso to make it 5-2. Eduardo Escobar followed with an RBI single, and Daniel Voglebach drove in McNeil on a sac fly to make it 7-2 Amazin’s. All runs scored with only one out.
Buck Showalter did roll the dice bringing Edwin Diaz in in the seventh inning. The Mets closer was great in 1-2/3 innings of relief, but it got hairy when Adam Ottavino got into big trouble in the ninth inning with a run scored and the bases loaded with two out. Showalter was forced to go to Seth Lugo to close the game out.
It will be fascinating to see how many pitches Diaz and Ottavino will be allowed to throw tonight — if needed.
