Flushing– A near three hour weather delay gave the Mets a chance to regroup for the bottom of the 9th but end up falling short in extra innings. The Astros put up a 5-spot in the top of the 11th inning against Met reliever Matt Festa giving the Mets their first series loss since May 29th.
“We knew at some point we were going to face some type of adversity. It’s part of it, what we’re going through. We’ll be fine. At the end of the day, two games, turn the page,” Mendoza said.
The bullpen has been plagued with injuries and suspensions for the last two weeks, but Mets manager Carlos Mendoza’s next man up mentality is going to have to come to fruition. With the trade deadline on the rise it seems almost expected for president of baseball operations David Sterns to make moves, but over the next two weeks it is going to have to be the next man up.
At the end of the day the Mets have had a historic month of baseball to put them at an overall record of 40-41 at the half way point. Over the next two weeks they will play the Nationals, Pirates, and the Rockies in the last series before the all-star break. With fourteen straight games coming up the Mets will call up Christian Scott to face the Nationals for depth in the starting rotation, and will have Edwin Diaz back from suspension half way through the stretch.
“It was good to see the boys play well. What we went through in the month of May to have a very good month of June and get back to put ourselves in a better position, knowing that we still have a ways to go, we still got work to do. I am very proud of the guys and very proud of the group, the expectation is we are going to play well and continue to push each other,” Mendoza said.
One of the lone bright spots in today’s game was Brandon Nimmo. Nimmo’s home run in the bottom of the 7th to tie the game was his 100th career home run. The Wyoming native was drafted in the first round of the 2011 draft by the Mets and has been a homegrown product over the last nine years. Over the off-season the Mets locked in Nimmo for an eight year extension worth $162 million to make him a Met for life.
“I’m proud of it. When I came up I’ve grown a lot as a player. This is one of those milestones that shows the growth I’ve had. When I first came up I wasn’t considered a home run hitter, just a slap hitter and honestly coming up a lot of people considered me a fourth or fifth outfielder. Now to have 100 home runs in the big leagues and be in a position to do it the way I did it is pretty special,” Nimmo said.
The Mets have one of the most important stretches of the season coming up starting in the Nations Capital to take on the Washington Nationals for a four game series. David Peterson is set to face off against Mackenzie Gore tomorrow night as the Mets will look to bounce back from a crushing defeat and get back in the win column.