Mets takeaways from Sunday's 4-3 win over Athletics, including late rally to complete sweep
The Mets rallied late to complete the three-game series sweep of the Oakland Athletics with a thrilling 4-3 win in 10 innings on Sunday afternoon.
Here are the takeaways...
- Pitching in place of Max Scherzer, who is dealing with some lingering soreness and had his start pushed back to Wednesday, Jose Butto made the second start of his big league career.
This time around, the young right-hander got off to a much better start than he did in his MLB debut. Butto needed just nine pitches and worked around a two-out double in a scoreless first.
He was helped out by a tremendous diving catch from Brandon Nimmo and stranded a pair in the second. Butto worked around two-out trouble again in the third, and was able put up another scoreless inning.
Oakland was finally able to get to him in the bottom of the fifth, as back-to-back hits from Kevin Smith and Esteury Ruiz evened things at one. After Ruiz stole second, Butto bounced back to retire the next three batters and strand him there.
Butto came back out for the sixth, but was pulled after walking the leadoff batter. Denyi Reyes came on in relief and was able to work his way out of the inning unscathed.
Butto allowed just one run on five hits while walking four and striking out two in five innings of work. He certainly gave the Mets more than they could've hoped for in his second big league start.
- Tommy Pham got the scoring started in the second with an opposite field solo home run. After struggling a bit in spring, Pham has gotten off to a fast start in the regular season with two homers and an .861 OPS.
- After A’s left-hander JP Sears retired 13 in a row, Francisco Lindor cranked his fourth home run of the season (second this series) to put the Mets back in front, 2-1.
- With the Mets' bullpen light on available high-leverage arms, John Curtiss pitched the eighth-inning, and he struggled for the first time this season. After a Jace Peterson walk and Aledmys Diaz single, Shea Langeliers doubled them home to give Oakland a 3-2 lead.
- The Mets answered right back in the top of the ninth, as Pete Alonso crushed a solo home run 430 feet to dead center to even things up at three. Alonso, who has been red hot of late, leads the league with eight homers.
Danny Jimenez then walked three straight batters to load the bases, giving the struggling Eduardo Escobar a chance to play hero. However, after a pitching change, Escobar grounded into a double play to end the inning. Escobar finished the day 1-for-4 and is now hitting .125.
- Jimmy Yacabonis, who was recently called up from Triple-A, struggled in the ninth but somehow danced his way out of danger. He was helped out by another spectacular diving catch from Nimmo to save the game.
- The Mets loaded the bases, but added just one run in the top of the 10th. David Robertson entered in the bottom half, pitching on back-to-back days for the first time this season, and got three huge outs to secure his fourth save and the 4-3 comeback win.
Highlights
What's next
The Mets will continue their West Coast road trip when they travel to Los Angeles to take on Freddie Freeman and the Dodgers on Monday night at 10:10 p.m.
After putting together his best start of the young season Tuesday against the Padres, David Peterson will take the ball against Dustin May.
