Marcus Stroman Shines as Mets Take Series From Padres
Marcus Stroman just keeps getting better.
The right-hander was magnificent again on Saturday, tossing 6.1 innings, and allowing just one run on six hits, while striking out eight (tied season-high) and walking one in a 4-1 win against the Padres.
Stroman picked up his sixth win of the season and lowered his ERA to 2.33 (10th best in MLB).
He has now thrown a combined 13 innings against the Padres in his last two starts, going 2-0 with only one earned run allowed, and 15 strikeouts.
The Mets' offense jumped out to a fast start against Joe Musgrove in the top of the first. After Musgrove hit Jonathan Villar to leadoff his afternoon, Francisco Lindor took him deep on the first pitch of the next at-bat for a two-run shot into the 7 line in right center.
Lindor's homer was his second against Musgrove in the span of a week, and put the Mets up 2-0 early.
As for Musgrove, he settled in after a shaky first inning. Despite allowing a leadoff single to Luis Guillorme in the bottom of the second, Musgrove retired the next 12 hitters he faced, striking out seven in this span.
In the bottom of the sixth, Musgrove issued a leadoff walk to Lindor. And Pete Alonso followed this up with the Mets' first hit since the second inning with a single to right. This put runners on the corners with nobody out for Dom Smith, who grounded into an RBI fielder's choice to extend the Mets' lead to 3-0.
Stroman came back out for the seventh and surrendered a 430 foot no-doubter into the second deck to Fernando Tatis Jr. to leadoff the inning. The Padres were finally on the board, cutting the deficit to 3-1. While Stroman got the next batter to ground out for the first out, he issued his first walk of the day to Will Myers, which saw Luis Rojas pull him in favor of Aaron Loup.
Despite getting struck in the bicep with a liner on Friday night, Loup looked just fine, inducing two quick outs via the ground ball and a line out to end the inning.
Pitching on back-to-back days for the first time this season, Seth Lugo entered in the eighth and worked around a walk to strike out three in the inning.
The Mets added a much-needed insurance run in the bottom of the eighth when Villar stepped to the dish and cranked a leadoff bomb into the Coca Cola corner to put his team up 4-1.
After picking up the four-out save on Friday night, Edwin Diaz came on for another save chance and shut the door with a 1-2-3 inning.
With Saturday's victory, the Mets took the first two games to clinch a series win against the Padres. The've now won three in a row, improving to 32-24 on the season.
