Mets recover to beat Diamondbacks after giving up four-run lead
Catcher James McCann #33 of the New York Mets celebrates his two-run home run with teammates during the top of the seventh inning of the MLB game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on April 22, 2022 in Phoenix, Arizona. Credit: Getty Images/Rebecca Noble
PHOENIX — In a 6-5 win over the Diamondbacks, the Mets’ greatest strength Friday night was hustling just enough to bring the game to a brief but complete halt.
Starling Marte’s sprint down the first-base line in the 10th and deciding inning yielded a run when he beat the throw from third baseman Matt Davidson. Initially ruled out, Marte and his immediate safe signal were vindicated when the Mets challenged the ruling, causing everybody — players, staff, fans — to hold tight while the umpires took another look.
When the call was overturned, Marte’s inning-ending groundout became a go-ahead RBI single, driving in Jeff McNeil and salvaging the night after Edwin Diaz’s first blown save of the season.
Seth Lugo stranded the potential winning run on first base in the bottom of the 10th, a highlight in a game that featured Chasen Shreve, Trevor May and Diaz combining to blow a four-run lead in the late innings.
Put another way: Things are going so well for the Mets (11-4) right now that even when the bullpen blew it, they won.
“That’s the definition of our team,” said James McCann, who crushed a 452-foot two-run home run in the seventh inning to give the Mets a 5-1 lead. “That’s what we pride ourselves on. If one guy doesn’t get it done today, someone else is.”
Manager Buck Showalter said: “It was fun. You get the first long road trip, no off day, after a good homestand, against a very hungry club that has some players back and one of the best pitchers probably in their division [Zac Gallen]. So we’ll take it.”
McCann’s first long ball of the season turned out to be very important when Mets relievers had problems. Shreve yielded a run in the seventh and May allowed Christian Walker’s two-run shot in the eighth. Diaz was an out away from ending it in regulation when Daulton Varsho snuck a home run over the rightfield fence. Before the run off Shreve, the Mets' bullpen had pitched 17 1/3 scoreless innings since last Saturday.
“You know what I like about him?’’ Showalter said of Diaz. “He struck the next guy out. Instead of woe-is-me and living in pity. I’m glad he’s ours. He’s a good one.”
Lefthander David Peterson allowed one run in 5 2⁄3 innings, giving up three hits and a walk and striking out three. Pitching to contact — including hard contact, such as the three 104-mph-or-harder batted balls that turned into outs — Peterson was highly efficient, throwing only 65 pitches.
Peterson, the No. 7 starter pitching in place of an injured Taijuan Walker, has a 0.64 ERA in three games (14 innings).
“I’m here to do what is asked of me, and that’s been to fill in and start,” he said.
Marte’s close call actually was at least the third bang-bang play of the night that went in the Mets’ favor.
Brandon Nimmo, who went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, had a pair of such sequences — and both proved critical.
The first occasion came in the fourth inning, when Nimmo became the Mets’ first baserunner against Gallen (five innings, one run). He chopped a ball against the shift into leftfield and sped to second base to make it a double. With a snazzy slide on the outside of the bag, he avoided the throw from leftfielder Cooper Hummel and tag from second baseman Ketel Marte. It was close enough that play paused as the D-backs (5-9) mulled their options, but no request for a review came.
Moments later, Nimmo scored on Pete Alonso’s bloop single.
“He never slows [down],’’ Showalter said of Nimmo. “He always gives himself a chance to get an extra base because he comes out of the box hard. Nim doesn’t do anything but go hard.”
It happened again in the sixth. Nimmo already was on first base — after slapping a single past a drawn-in Davidson, no defensive shift used — when Marte followed with a single to left.
With the play unfolding in front of him, Nimmo saw Hummel take a step back at the last moment before fielding the ball and he went for third. The would-be close call became less so when Davidson dropped the ball while trying to tag Nimmo. Marte advanced to second, giving the Mets two runners in scoring position with none out. The pre-replay delay came anyway, until Arizona gave the go-ahead to resume.
The Mets took the lead on Francisco Lindor’s sacrifice fly to center, plating Nimmo (and advancing Marte to third). They added another run when Alonso’s weak grounder to first brought in Marte.
Marte was just trying to keep up with Nimmo.
“When I saw the guy play like that,” Marte said, “that’s how I have to play too.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
