If the New York Mets (67-61) were looking to keep their momentum going after their walk-off wins in the Orioles series, they need to make a statement on Thursday as their pivotal ten-game road trip began. In their series opener against the San Diego Padres (72-57), the offense did just that, picking up 17 hits with seven of the nine players recording a multi-hit night as New York took the series opener, 8-3.
It only took two batters for the Mets to get on the board first against Dylan Cease (12-10, 3.43 ERA). Francisco Lindor led off the game with a double. That was followed up by an RBI double by Mark Vientos to instantly put them up, 1-0.
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The Mets would add on to that lead in the fourth with a pair of runs. With one out, Jesse Winker singled to center and Jose Iglesias hit a ground-rule double. Thanks to a passed ball by catcher Luis Campusano, Winker would end up scoring. Two batters later, it was Jeff McNeil‘s turn to add on to the lead with an RBI infield single.
That was all the Mets would get against Cease, who had a quality start in a losing effort. Cease went 6 1/3 innings, allowed three runs (two earned) on nine hits, walked a batter, and struck out seven on 106 pitches (71 strikes).
The early lead was all the run support that Luis Severino (9-6, 3.84 ERA) would need. The Mets right-hander did not have his best stuff, but he was able to battle through against one of the hottest teams in baseball. The Padres had their chances against him, but they were 0-for-5 against him with runners in scoring position.
San Diego’s best chance came in the bottom of the fifth. Due to a single sandwiched in between two walks, they ended up loading the bases with no one out. However, Severino would limit the damage to just one run, which came around to score on a Jake Cronenworth double play. It could have been more, but Pete Alonso made a good play at first to preserve an error by Lindor.
On the night, Severino went five innings, gave up one run on five hits, walked four batters, and struck out five on 87 pitches (55 strikes). It is the third time that Severino has walked four or more batters in a game this year (the first time since May 5 against the Rays).
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From there, it was up to the Mets bullpen and they were able to do the job. Danny Young worked a 1-2-3 sixth inning with a pair of strikeouts and Reed Garrett worked around a leadoff walk to pitch a scoreless seventh.
The eighth inning belonged to Phil Maton. While he needed 22 pitches to get through the heart of the Padres order, he threw 17 strikes and picked up a 1-2-3 inning.
New York would add five key insurance runs in the ninth to preserve having to use Edwin Díaz for the third time in four days. The Mets had three straight singles to begin the inning to set up what would be a crooked inning. Vientos ended up singling up the middle past a drawn-in infield to extend the lead to 5-1.
Pete Alonso would make it a 6-1 lead two batters later with a single and he would later come around to score on a double into the left-center field gap by Winker. Winker came around to score on an infield hit by Iglesias.
Huascar Brazobán got the ninth and was unable to keep the bullpen’s scoreless streak as he allowed two runs on two hits and walked two on 36 pitches (20 strikes). However, as San Diego was threatening a rally, Brazobán got Cronenworth to groundout to first to end the game.
On a night where eight of the nine players in the starting lineup recorded a hit, it was tough to pick one player. Vientos, however, gets the slight nod for driving in three runs. It is the third time this year that the third baseman has had a three-RBI game with all of those performances coming since July 26. Also, he was able to extend his hit streak to ten games.
The Mets will continue their four-game series against the Padres on Friday night. The game will be televised on SNY at 9:40 p.m ET. Paul Blackburn (5-3, 4.19) will take the ball for the Mets against Joe Musgrove (3-4, 4.97) for the Padres.
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