The New York Mets were able to change their losing ways last night in Anaheim thanks to Ronny Mauricio.
The New York Mets last road trip was a winless disaster, but the Mets got this one off to a better start as they came from behind to beat the Los Angeles Angels, 4-3, with the winning run coming on a solo home run by Ronny Mauricio in the seventh inning.
This game was a battle between two teams that have been doing a lot of losing lately. The Mets came in having dropped 17 of their last 20, while the Angels had lost 10 of their last 11.
It didn’t look good for the Mets early. Christian Scott once again had a rough opening frame as he gave up a two-run home run to Jorge Soler, who drove in Mike Trout after Trout singled to center. More bad Mets baseball followed in the third when Zach Neto was hit by a pitch, then stole second and tried to steal third. Catcher Francisco Alvarez airmailed the throw into left field, and that brought Neto home.
Angels starter Walbert Urena was dealing through the first five innings, but the Mets broke through in the sixth, with the rally starting on a line-drive infield single by Bo Bichette that hit Urena on the knee. That took the starter out of the game, and the Angels bullpen is a gift that just keeps on giving these days. Brent Suter and Chase Silseth coughed up the initial damage this time around, with the key hit delivered by Marcus Semien via a two-run single to center that tied the game at 3-3.
Mauricio provided the heroics an inning later, homering off a fastball from Jose Fermin that left the bat at 111.3 mph, according to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. The Mets bullpen put on a surprisingly strong performance, holding the Halos without a hit for the final four innings as Devin Williams rebounded from his disastrous homestead to notch his third save.
The win won’t save the Mets season, but it does give them a bit of breathing room and a chance to win a series for a change. They’ve been facing daily questions about their poor performances lately, and those questions are typically followed by the inevitable inquiry about when manager Carlos Mendoza will be fired.
Mendoza credited Scott with holding the fort after his bad first inning, and he was happy to talk about the Mets playing a different brand of baseball from what we’ve been seeing lately.
"We haven’t been able to win games like that when you get down 3-0 and the feeling is like, ‘All right,’” Mendoza said. “Today, it wasn’t the case. It was something different, the energy in the dugout, the guys playing loose, the guys playing the game. And it started with [Scott]. When he got punched, he punched back. He kind of set the tone there.”