Following their first loss in a week and a half, the Mets (79-65) headed north of the border to begin a three-game series with the Blue Jays (68-77). Tylor Megill (3-5, 4.48 ERA) took the mound against opener Ryan Burr (0-1, 4.10 ERA), and Megill fueled the Mets to a hard-fought 3-2 win to begin another win streak.
While neither of the starting pitching options in this game would inspire much confidence, the offense was nearly nonexistent for the entire game. Megill stepped in for Paul Blackburn, who was originally scheduled to start but experienced back tightness before the game, and he had one of his best starts of the season.
Megill got into trouble early, loading the bases in the first inning, but after a 30-pitch effort, he escaped the inning before cruising through the rest of his start. Megill went six scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and striking out nine. It was an unexpectedly dominant display for Megill, who has been unusable for most of the year.
Tylor Megill, K'ing the Side in the 5th.
8Ks thru 5. pic.twitter.com/qPlFVGu6Ol
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 10, 2024
On the Blue Jays’ side, Ryan Burr entered play with a 4.44 ERA in 26 appearances, primarily as a reliever. He kept the Mets off the board with two perfect innings out of the gate before making way for Luis Frías, who followed with 1 1/3 perfect innings of his own. The Mets finally did some damage against lefty Ryan Yarbrough in the fourth inning when J.D. Martinez followed a walk and a hit-by-pitch with a ground ball single to get the Mets on the board 1-0.
Both offenses remained dormant until the seventh inning, with both teams having just one hit each. That changed when Danny Young and José Buttó combined to allow two hit-by-pitches, two singles, and a sacrifice fly to surrender the lead and rob Tylor Megill of what would have been a much-deserved win.
More important, however, was that the Mets now trailed by a run with two innings to play and only one hit on the night. If there’s one thing about these Mets, you can never count them out. Just when the momentum shifted in favor of the Blue Jays, the Mets were able to manufacture two runs with some small ball and poor pitch execution from the Blue Jays.
Jesse Winker led off the top of the eighth inning with a pinch-hit walk before Francisco Alvarez dribbled an infield single, with the pinch-runner Tyrone Taylor advancing to third on a throwing error. Francisco Lindor then walked to load the bases with no outs. Taylor scored in the next at-bat on a wild pitch to tie the game before the newly acquired Eddy Alvarez came around to score on a passed ball from catcher Brian Serven. All of a sudden, the Mets were right back in front.
Ryne Stanek was Carlos Mendoza’s answer for the eighth inning, and Stanek responded by halting the late-inning chaos, striking out the side twice on fastballs and finally on a splitter. Stanek has pitched a scoreless outing in six of his last seven appearances after a rough start to his Mets tenure.
Edwin Díaz pitched the ninth inning, and after retiring the first two batters, he allowed an infield single to Ernie Clement before Starling Marte caught a hard-hit fly ball on the warning track to put an end to the game. The Mets won 3-2, improved to 79-65 on the year, and went back up to 1.0 games over the Braves for the final Wild Card spot.
Tylor Megill didn’t allow a single baserunner after the first inning, retiring 16 in a row to finish his night. For a pitcher who has battled walk issues and constant traffic on the basepaths throughout this year and his entire career, it was a fantastic sight to see Megill work through the Blue Jays’ lineup with ease for the final 5 1/3 innings of his outing.
It wasn’t announced until early Monday that Paul Blackburn would miss his start and Tylor Megill would step in. Nobody could have expected this kind of start from Megill, who looked like an ace rather than someone who appeared set to be demoted for good.
The Mets and Blue Jays continue their series at the Rogers Centre on Tuesday evening. David Peterson (9-1, 2.75 ERA) will take the mound against former Met Chris Bassitt (9-13, 4.30 ERA). Both pitchers have made just one career appearance against their opponent, with Peterson allowing two runs in five innings in his only start against the Blue Jays and Bassitt tossing 7 2/3 shutout innings in his only start against the Mets.
First pitch is at 7:07 p.m. ET, and the game will air on SNY.
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