Walk-Off Magic Gives Mets Game One Victory By Matt Blittner, The New York Extra/TheNYExtra.com
A Single admission Twin Bill was on tap Tuesday for the Mets as their Monday night game with the Giants was rained out before it began.
A mid-afternoon start time on Tuesday saw the Mets’ hitters sleepwalk through much of the game as starting pitcher Tylor Megill gutted out six-innings of four-run ball before turning the game over to the bullpen. Joely Rodriguez, Seth Lugo, Edwin Díaz and Adam Ottavino conspired to keep the Giants’ hitters off the board with four shutout innings of relief. That gave the Mets enough time to get to San Francisco’s bullpen as they won the game 5-4 on a Francisco Lindor walk-off single in 10-innings
Neil Miller The New York Extra/TheNYExtra.com copyright 2022
Camilo Doval entered the game for the Giants in the bottom of the ninth with the score tied 4-4. He started the inning by walking Eduardo Escobar. It was the first walk drawn by a Mets batter in the game and it put the potential winning-run on base. Robinson Cano followed with a walk of his own to put the winning-run in scoring position as Doval struggled with his command. Luis Guillorme pinch-hit for J.D. Davis and laid down a sacrifice bunt to put Escobar 90-feet away from winning the game. Unfortunately, Doval struckout Travis Jankowski and pinch-hitter Dominic Smith – both looking – to escape the jam and send the game to extra-innings.
Adam Ottavino was on for the first extra inning and he got Wilmer Flores to flyout to deep right field; which allowed ghost runner Brandon Belt to take third with only one out. A semi-intentional walk to Darin Ruf, who stayed in the game after pinch-hitting for Joc Pederson in the eighth, put runners on the corners with one out. Brandon Crawford lined out to Cano, who almost dropped it. Then, Thairo Estrada grounded to Francisco Lindor at short, who threw wide of Pete Alonso at first. However, Alonso just barely managed to keep his foot on the bag to secure the final out – after a Managerial Challenge overturned the initial safe call.
Jarlín García pitched the bottom of the tenth for the Giants. Brandon Nimmo served as the Mets ghost runner and advanced to third on Jeff McNeil’s leadoff grounder to first. Starling Marte followed with a walk and then Lindor hit a walk-off single to win the game 5-4 in ten innings. It was the Mets’ eighth win of the season, which is tied for the MLB lead.
