Brandon Nimmo's HR, Kodai Senga's solid start lifts Mets over Rockies
The Mets' Brandon Nimmo is greeted in the dugout after his solo home run during the fourth inning against the Rockies in an MLB game at Citi Field on Friday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Mets general manager Billy Eppler, who used to work for Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, followed his mentor on Friday by giving an upbeat “State of the Team” address before the Mets hosted the Rockies on Friday night.
As Cashman did on Wednesday when he told Yankees fans “don’t give up on us,” Eppler spoke optimistically of the Mets, who had lost three straight and nine of 11.
“I believe in this roster,” Eppler said. “I believe in this team, the players that are here. There’s too much track record. There’s too much these guys have accomplished. There’s too much know-how.”
What there hasn’t been is too much winning. But Kodai Senga and Brandon Nimmo teamed up to lead the Mets to a skid-snapping 1-0 win on Friday night before 25,854 at Citi Field.
Pitching on eight days’ rest, Senga (4-1, 3.38 ERA) was effectively wild in six innings. Of his 101 pitches, 53 were strikes, 48 were balls. The righthander allowed two singles, walked four and struck out four.
“L's don't look good for this team,” Senga said through an interpreter. “We don't deserve L's. We shouldn't lose. That was just what I had in mind. To be able to contribute to a win was big for me."
Nimmo -- one day after he was thrown out trying to steal second base with the Mets down two runs in the ninth inning -- gave the Mets their first hit and only run with a first-pitch home run off Antonio Senzatela leading off the fourth.
“You’ve got to be like goldfish in this game and have a short term memory,” Nimmo said. “You’ve got to remember that we’ve got a game tomorrow and kind of give it everything you’ve got.”
The Mets managed five hits off three Colorado pitches. But Nimmo’s third home run was enough as Senga, Drew Smith (seventh inning), David Robertson (eighth inning against the heart of the order) and Adam Ottavino (ninth inning, fourth save) held the Rockies (12-21) to five hits.
The Mets’ pitchers were good, and they were also lucky in the eighth. Robertson had runners and first and second and two outs when Ryan McMahon sent a screaming liner to the right side of the infield that seemed ticketed to become a tying single.
But the ball hit pinch runner Brenton Doyle for an automatic out to end the inning.
In the ninth, Ottavino allowed a leadoff single to Randal Grichuk, who then stole second and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt. But Ottavino, who blew a save in the eighth inning in Detroit on Wednesday, struck out Mike Moustakas and got Charlie Blackmon on a liner to right to end it.
The game took 2:10.
The Mets are 17-16, back over .500 after a stunning three-game sweep in Detroit in which they scored a total of six runs, five of them in the first game, and lost all three despite starting Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander against a second-division team.
Manager Buck Showalter moved Brett Baty up to sixth (the rookie’s highest spot ever in the starting lineup). Baty went 1-for-2 with a walk and a double.
Of the offense, Eppler said: “There’s times of the year where you overperform in 10-game, 15-game stretches. There’s times when you underperform in those stretches. It’s kind of striking the balance there and not succumbing to the recency bias, but kind of taking a step back and trying to look at it from the 10,000-foot view . . . I have the utmost confidence these guys are going to break out.”
Of Baty and fellow rookie Francisco Alvarez (who was not in the lineup), Eppler said: “They've been great. They've really taken every opportunity they've been given with a lot of passion, a lot of energy. There's a purpose behind what they're doing.”
Mets fans would like to see Eppler call up two more youngsters: Mark Vientos and Ronny Mauricio, both of whom are off to hot starts at Triple-A Syracuse.
Eppler said special assistant Carlos Beltran is going to watch Syracuse this weekend to get a gauge on how major league-ready the prospects might be.
“It’s just something that’s definitely on our radar and something we’re thinking about,” Eppler said of potentially calling up Vientos. “But I just wait for the feedback from the (front office) group as they go through Syracuse.”
Eppler seemed less interested in an immediate callup of Mauricio, a shortstop who recently started playing second base. Eppler said he doesn’t want to call up any top prospects unless he’s sure they will get enough playing time to not hamper their development.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
