Brandon Nimmo did what he may to assist the Mets jumpstart their scuffling offense and the Mets’ pitching employees did what they might do to make his fourth-inning residence run maintain up.
The Mets opened a three-game collection with the Colorado Rockies with a 1-0 win behind Nimmo’s residence run and 6 shutout innings by right-hander Kodai Senga on Friday evening at Citi Field.
The win was desperately wanted because the crew was contemporary off a sweep by the Detroit Tigers. Much just like the Tigers, the Rockies will not be anticipated to be in rivalry for a playoff spot, and the Mets have been wanting to snap their three-game skid.
“We wanted to win really bad today,” reliever Adam Ottavino mentioned. “Kodai did a great job. We didn’t want it to be for nothing. We needed to make it stand up. Nimmo got us on the board. Sometimes, as my college coach would say, you’ve got to give up no runs. Luckily, we were able to do that today.”
Senga (4-1) got here into the sport with three additional days of relaxation. His purpose was to be extra pitch environment friendly and stroll fewer hitters to permit him to go deeper into the sport. He went six sturdy earlier than being changed by right-hander Drew Smith and nonetheless walked 4 hitters, however he bought the outs he wanted to complete probably the greatest outings he’s had thus far.
“A lot of walks and a lot of balls, so a lot of things to criticize,” Senga mentioned. “But I know we were on a bit of a losing streak, so I’m glad I was able to stop that.”
Much of the credit score on this recreation went to the pitchers.
“Just a huge job by our pitching staff understanding that our offense is trying to find its way right now and still finding a way and shutting the door on a team that came in here kind of hot,” Nimmo mentioned. “They did an amazing job.”
Nimmo hit his third residence run of the season off left-hander Antonio Senzatela (0-1), who made his first begin since tearing his ACL final summer time. The Mets (17-16) got here in having scored solely a single run by their final 18 innings and their struggles continued in opposition to Senzatela and the remainder of the Colorado employees. They managed solely three hits in opposition to Senzatela and he confronted solely two over the minimal in 5 innings of labor.
“He has many different pitches that move just a little bit differently than the others,” Nimmo mentioned. “So when they do that well and they tunnel that well, it makes them hard to square up.”
The Rockies (12-21), who at present sit in final place within the NL West, practically tied the sport within the high of the eighth. David Robertson walked Jurickson Profar to steer off the inning and an errant pickoff throw by catcher Tomas Nido put two on with two out. Ryan McMahon hit one simply previous first base, however it hit pinch runner Brenton Doyle for the out.
It would have been the sport’s first hit with runners in scoring place and Profar was nicely round third base by the point the decision was made.
The Mets escaped with the lead intact, however the ninth inning was simply as tense. Randal Grichuck singled off Ottavino and stole second. He was moved over to the third on a sacrifice bunt for the primary out of the inning. Ottavino struck out Mike Moustakas and Charlie Blackmon’s flare into proper discipline was caught by Starling Marte for the out. It was the fourth save of the season for Ottavino.
“Charlie is a great hitter. I know him really well and I knew there was a chance he’d be swinging but I wanted to come right at him right there,” Ottavino mentioned. “He put a great swing on it and I got lucky it went straight to Marte. Worked out.”
Nimmo walked within the eighth however the Mets stranded him to finish the inning and stranded 5 complete. The Mets have produced solely two runs during the last 27 innings, however the crew is assured they will get out of this funk.
“They’re trying their best to put runs on the board for us and we understand that. We’re trying to put up zeroes,” Ottavino mentioned. “We’ve had our fair share of bad performances that have led to losses, so the blame goes all around. We know that they’re going to break out soon. Those guys are really capable. I don’t think we put any extra pressure on ourselves to worry about them scoring. We always expect them to score, and if they don’t, we’ll do our best.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com