The New York Mets have played a lot of extra inning games, and it was Ronny Mauricio who delivered in this one.
The New York Mets have been extra-inning warriors so far in this young season, and the Mets came from behind to down the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-3 in 10 innings, with Ronny Mauricio supplying the heroics with a walk-off shot over the head of Arizona Diamondbacks right fielder Corbin Carroll.
This game featured a matchup between two of the more prominent free agent pitchers who were on the market this winter, Freddy Peralta of the Mets and Zac Gallen for the D-Backs.
The Mets staked Peralta to an early two-run lead with single runs in the first and second innings, as Brett Baty drove in Francisco Lindor with a sacrifice fly to make it 1-0. Lindor then got Francisco Alvarez home with a double as the Mets catcher scored on a throwing error by right fielder Corbin Carroll.
Peralta made that 2-0 lead hold up until the fifth, when an RBI single by Adrian Del Castillo drove home a pair of runs after successfully challenging a called third strike. Nolan Arenado followed up the next inning off reliever Huascar Brazoban, who had his first rough outing of the season that culminated when a double by Arenado brought home Gabriel Moreno for the lead run.
Gallen pitched effectively, throwing five innings of two-run ball with one of the runs unearned, as he struck out five and gave up five hits to go with four walks on 95 pitches. Peralta wasn’t extremely sharp, throwing just 62 strikes on 101 pitches before being lifted for Brazoban after 4-2/3 innings, and his final line included three earned runs
The Diamondbacks lead lasted until the eighth, when the Mets managed to scratch out a run to tie the game. The rally started with a single by Jorge Polanco, and a single by Brett Baty moved pinch running Tyrone Taylor over to third. Jared Young then pinch hit for Mark Vientos and delivered a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 3-3.
The key pitching performance actually came from reliever Luke Weaver, who managed to strand Arizona’s ghost runner by getting Arenado to pop up, then adding a second out on a liner by Ildemaro Vargas and finally striking out Tim Tawa to give the Mets a clean chance to win the game.
Lindor was the ghost runner for the Mets in the bottom of the inning, and Bo Bichette moved him over to third with a hard-hit ground ball to the right side that could easily have been a base hit.
Mauricio came up as the pinch hitter after being recalled to take the roster spot of injured outfielder Juan Soto, and after taking the count to two strikes he delivered the winning line drive off reliever Paul Seward as the ball was well over the head of the drawn-in Carroll to send the Mets home winners.
The Mets have already played four extra-innings games this season, so we’re starting to get used this as a staple of their winning ways. They’ll take a four-game win streak into tomorrow’s game against Arizona, as David Peterson face Ryan Nelson of Arizona.