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The Mets got another rock-solid seven-inning outing from Luis Severino and Francisco Lindor added another two hits to defeat the Boston Red Sox 4-1 on Monday night at Citi Field.
With a fifth-consecutive win and a 13th win in the past 19 games, New York is now 74-64 on the season and moved to a half-game back of the Atlanta Braves for the final NL Wild Card spot and 3.0 games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks for the second spot.
Here are the takeaways…
– Severino blew an 0-2 up-and-in fastball past Tyler O’Neil to close the door on an eight-pitch, 1-2-3 first inning.
The right-hander put two on with one out in the second with a bloop single to center and a walk, but he got Connor Wong to bounce into an easy-peasy 4-6-3 double play.
Severino couldn’t get the shutdown inning in the third, as Nimmo came up empty on a diving try in center field on a sinking line drive off Ceddanne Rafaela’s bat for a one-out triple. Jarren Duran knocked him in past a drawn-in infield, but Starling Marte’s nonchalant relay-in was enough to nail a greedy Duran at second base.
The right-hander got the shutdown he needed in the fourth, striking out Triston Casas looking on a nice back-door slider to end the 1-2-3 frame.
Whereas the Red Sox defense faltered, the Mets turned it on with a beautifully turned 5-4-3 double play erasing a leadoff single before Pete Alonso ranged toward the line and snared a ball before hitting Severino in stride at first to end the inning.
After looking like he was cruising through the sixth, Severino was in a jam with two on and two down on back-to-back singles (the first on a ball that DJ Stewart should have caught). Nimmo made up for his earlier mistake with a diving grab on a sinking liner from Rafael Devers to end the threat.
Severino looked like he lost the strike zone issuing a leadoff walk and then falling behind 3-1 to start the seventh, but three flyball outs ended his night with a tip of his hat to an appreciative Citi Field crowd. His final line: 7.0 innings, six hits, one run, two walks and five strikeouts on 100 pitches (66 strikes) to lower his ERA to 3.84 on the year.
– The Mets got runners on first and third with nobody down in the second on singles by Jose Iglesias and Jeff McNeil, but only got one run out of it off of Boston starter Brayan Bello when Marte’s rocket up the middle (103.8 mph off the bat) kicked off the mound for an easy 4-6-3 run-scoring twin-killing.
– Francisco Lindor extended his hit streak to 13 games with a broken-bat single with one down in the third. And he came all the way around to score when Nimmo lined a ball to the wall in center field that Duran misread the flight of.
It sounded like it came off the end of Nimmo’s bat, but with a 100.9 mph exit velocity he clearly good contact on it. And where Duran misread it, Lindor read the flight of the ball perfectly and was able to beat the relay throw with a head-first dive into home.
– Stewart, in the lineup as J.D. Martinez was placed on the paternity list, singled with two down in the fourth and he came all the way around to score on Luis Torrens’ soft double down the line in left when O’Neil bobbled the ball in the corner.
Lindor, who extended his career-high on-base streak to 31 games when he was hit by a pitch in the first, drove in Torrens with a single to right for a 4-1 lead.
He finished the night 2-for-3 with an RBI (his 81st), a run scored and a strikeout. He raised his OPS to .835 to move into MLB’s top 20.
– Danny Young got the first two outs on strikeouts in the eighth, but he walked pinch-hitter Romy Gonzalez and plunked O’Neil on the foot to bring up Devers, with 28 homers and a .913 OPS, representing the tying run.
A first-pitch wild pitch put both runners in scoring position, but the lefty got a slow roller to second to escape the jam.
– Phil Maton became the 10th different Met to earn a save this year with a 1-2-3 ninth (with a pair of strikeouts) to shut the door.
– Alonso went hitless in three at-bats with a walk and a strikeout, the latter on a generous high strike call from home plate umpire Larry Vanover, who drew the ire of several batters. The first baseman has just six hits in his last 39 at-bats (.154) but with three home runs.
Highlights
MVP of the Game: Luis Severino
Severino got 12 whiffs and 20 called strikes (32 percent of his pitches) on the night to keep Boston out of things and bounce back from a 4.2 rough outing his last time out. His sweeper was particularly good, with a 53 percent called strike-whiff rate.
What’s next
The Mets and Red Sox continue the series with a 7:10 p.m. first pitch scheduled for Tuesday in Queens.
Left-hander David Peterson (2.83 ERA and 1.321 WHIP in 92.1 innings) looks to continue his fine run of form. In six starts in August, Peterson pitched to a 1.86 ERA over 38.2 innings with 27 strikeouts to 13 walks.
Boston counters with right-hander Kutter Crawford (4.12 ERA and 1.097 WHIP over 155 innings) for his 29th start of the campaign. After a stretch of five poor outings after the All-Star break (9.75 ERA over 24 innings), he has fared better in his last three (3.71 ERA over 17 innings).
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