Flushing– A pitching duel had the Mets down by one run heading into the bottom of the 9th and a dream came true for J.D. Martinez who wins it for New York. Battling through a series win against the Marlins the Mets have escaped a series loss thanks to J.D. Martinez’s first career walk off home run. Martinez has hit 321 home runs in his 14 year career, but has never hit a walk off home run and it could not have come at a better time.
“No one is expecting us to do anything anymore let’s just go out there and enjoy it and have fun. Win or lose lets keep the mood up, lets take the pressure off of us cause we don’t have any pressure right now and kind of just going back to that meeting. It was one of the better meetings I feel that I have been to in my career and I have been in a lot of meetings where you kind of leave and you gotta be better with this and that, but it was one of those meetings where you left and everyone was positive and excited to come back to the field tomorrow,” Martinez said.
Marlins starting pitcher Roddery Munoz carried a no-hitter into the 6th inning and mowed down the Mets lineup. Munoz was pulled after six innings giving up only one hit and striking out five. Luis Severino counteracted Munoz performance giving up only one run on seven hits, but a high pitch count cut his start after six innings and the bullpen had to keep the game close. Drew Smith gave up a solo home run to Jazz Chisholm Jr. to bring the Marlins lead up to two, but Sean Reid-Foley and Edwin Diaz kept it close heading into the bottom of the 9th.
“We have some tough losses. The guys continue to show up, continue to battle, continue to fight. Today we saw it, on a night where it was hard for us offensively we found a way and won a baseball game,” Mendoza said.
Edwin Diaz making his return from the injured list looked sharp. Carlos Mendoza threw him right in and was able to hit his spots to keep it a one run game. Diaz managed to top out at 100 MPH on his fastball and had effective movement on his off speed. A solid outing for Diaz and earned the win in tonight’s game.
“I feel 100%, I was throwing 99 a 100 today I didn’t a lot earlier in the season. Was locating pitches the way I wanted to, my slider was sharp and I just did my job,” Diaz said.
The Mets welcome the San Diego Padres in for the weekend, as they look to continue recent success. Over the last 12 games the Mets are 8-4 and have put themselves three games back from the final wild card spot heading into this series.