Tigers end 9-game skid with wild win over Mets
JaCoby Jones collected a career-high four RBIs Friday night, when his two-run double in the seventh inning gave the visiting Detroit Tigers the lead for good in a wild 9-8 win over the New York Mets.
The Tigers snapped a nine-game losing streak and ended the Mets' four-game winning streak.
Jones, who also had a two-run homer in the second, entered Friday with three career three-RBI games. His go-ahead double off Drew Gagnon (3-1) provided the final lead change in a hectic sequence in which the Mets took the lead three times and the Tigers tied the score twice between the fourth and sixth.
Buck Farmer (3-3) earned the win despite allowing one run in the sixth. Shane Greene, the Tigers' fifth reliever, became the only Detroit bullpen arm to toss a clean inning when he needed just seven pitches to earn his 16th save.
The Tigers scored twice apiece in the first -- on an RBI single by Nicholas Castellanos and a sacrifice fly by Miguel Cabrera -- and second, on Jones' two-run homer. Amed Rosario homered for the Mets' first hit in the third before New York took its first lead in the fourth, when Wilson Ramos laced an RBI single and Adeiny Hechavarria hit a three-run homer.
Cabrera promptly tied the game with a leadoff homer in the fifth, his second. Pete Alonso answered with his 17th homer off the left field foul pole in the bottom of the inning. Christin Stewart tied the game again with a sacrifice fly in the sixth before Aaron Altherr, in his first at-bat with the Mets, hit a pinch-hit homer.
After Jones' go-ahead double and a subsequent pinch-hit RBI single by Brandon Dixon, the Tigers survived one more rally by the Mets, who pulled within 9-8 on Ramos' homer leading off the eighth. Hechavarria doubled with two outs but was stranded when Joe Jimenez struck out pinch-hitter Dominic Smith.
Tigers rookie left-hander Gregory Soto allowed five runs on six hits and one walk while striking out four over 3 2/3 innings. Soto also had two hits in his first two big league at-bats for Detroit, which received four hits from batters in the No. 9 hole.
Mets starter Noah Syndergaard gave up six runs on 10 hits and one walk while striking out nine over 5 1/3 innings.
--Field Level Media
