As it seems, Yu Darvish and Eric Hosmer can nonetheless win you a ball sport.
The Padres’ duo — one on the pitcher’s mound, the opposite manning first base and hitting an impactful early house run — joined forces to present San Diego a 4-1 win over the Mets on Friday evening.
Darvish, whose greatest years in Major League Baseball got here all the best way again in 2012 and 2013, pitched like a person who simply loved a number of days off. Making his first begin after the All-Star break, Darvish carved by way of the Mets’ lineup for seven innings, giving up 4 hits and one run.
“Give credit to Darvish tonight,” Max Scherzer extolled. “He pitched really well. He was having quick innings. It was kind of a time of possession thing, where I was grinding through the first three innings and he was very efficient. That’s a tough situation to pitch in. I like being on the other side of that.”
“He had five or six pitches working,” Buck Showalter observed. “We had to defend all of them.”
On this evening in Flushing, the Mets have been befuddled by every one among Darvish’s choices. Swing after swing got here up empty as Darvish stored the ball off the Mets’ barrels, and infrequently missed their bats utterly. It was a classic efficiency from the 35-year-old, and Darvish wasn’t the one Padre who conjured up some previous magic.
Mets followers won’t ever be capable of overlook Hosmer. His beard, his smirk, his defiant demeanor that usually reads as conceitedness. Hosmer was the one who scampered house from third base within the ninth inning of Game 5 of the 2015 World Series, daring Met first baseman Lucas Duda to throw him out. Duda’s throw, famously, sailed vast. Hosmer and the Royals, famously, received that sport in additional innings, denying the Mets an opportunity at a title.
Friday’s common season sport pales compared to that October evening seven years in the past, however the crowded seats at Citi Field certainly shared some recollections of Hosmer tormenting them whereas carrying royal blue. Now donning the Padres’ brown and gold, Hosmer teed off on a Scherzer heater within the fourth inning, plopping it over the left-center subject wall for a two-run homer.
Hosmer had six RBI in that 2015 World Series, however his two on Friday would have been sufficient on their very own to beat the Mets, who appeared to nonetheless be on trip. With two extra hits off Scherzer (he additionally had a ringing double within the second inning), Hosmer is now 17-for-55 (.309) in his profession towards the long run Hall of Famer.
Scherzer was certainly not unhealthy on Friday evening. In truth, he was in management for just about the whole night, save for the middle-away fastball that Hosmer destroyed. He ended his begin with eight strikeouts and 15 whiffs on his 93 pitches. Darvish, in the meantime, punched out 9 and at one level set down ten batters in a row.
The Mets’ probabilities at a comeback have been made a lot more durable as soon as their bullpen obtained concerned. Joely Rodriguez, to his credit score, ought to have begun his evening with a strikeout. Entering for Scherzer within the seventh inning, he dotted a ravishing 1-2 slider on the surface nook to Trent Grisham. Home plate umpire James Hoye didn’t respect its magnificence as a lot as Rodriguez, and he known as it a ball. On the very subsequent pitch, Grisham made the rating 3-0 with a solo house run.
“James is a good umpire,” Showalter mentioned afterward. “I know there were a lot of close pitches we’d like to have. It looked like strike three before the home run. But [only scoring] one run is really what beat us.”
On high of that, Tomas Nido left the sport with a left hand contusion after getting crossed up with Scherzer and taking a pitch immediately off his wrist.
“We’ll see how he is tomorrow,” Showalter mentioned. “He was pretty sore, just didn’t feel like he could swing the bat.”
Already with out beginning catcher James McCann, the Mets want one other backstop harm like they want a gap within the head. The X-rays on Nido’s hand got here again detrimental, however having to tug him mid-game is actually lower than supreme.
Now, for the excellent news, no less than for those who’re into baseball historical past. Scherzer handed Curt Schilling and Bob Gibson on the profession strikeout record, transferring into sole possession of fifteenth place.
“I’ll speak to Bob Gibson,” Scherzer mentioned, blatantly disregarding Schilling. “That was my dad’s favorite pitcher. I’m definitely going to give that ball to him. As a kid, growing up, he was one of my idols. I did book reports on him. So, to pass him is a huge thing for me personally.”
Next on the record is Scherzer’s former teammate Justin Verlander, who is simply three forward of him now. With each righties nonetheless going robust, their positioning on the all-time leaderboard will likely be a enjoyable particular person subplot for the remainder of the season.
Friday evening was decidedly not enjoyable for the Mets, although, who’ve two extra video games towards this robust San Diego workforce, which had injured icon Fernando Tatis Jr. cheering them on from the dugout.
The Mets received’t must see Darvish once more, they usually received’t have to fret about Tatis except they see the Friars within the playoffs, however they may need to spend extra time sport planning for Hosmer.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com