Stroman Solid as Mets' Offense Powers Way to Series Split in San Diego
The New York Mets slugged their way to a four-game split with the San Diego Padres, capturing their second-straight victory on Sunday.
Despite not having his best command, Marcus Stroman grinded out 6.2 innings, giving up an unearned run, on four hits, with four walks and seven strikeouts.
On the offensive end, Jose Peraza helped get things going with a one out ground rule double over the head of center fielder Jurickson Profar in the top of the third. Peraza advanced to third on a Stroman sac-bunt, before Billy McKinney drove him in with two outs for an RBI single for the game's first run.
One inning later, Dom Smith worked a nine pitch at-bat, which ended with him taking Padres pitcher Chris Paddack deep for a solo home run to center to extend the Mets' lead to 2-0.
Stroman ran into some heavy trouble in the bottom half with the bases loaded and one out. However, his defense bailed him out. Third baseman Brandon Drury made a fantastic backhand play to field a grounder, before tagging third base and throwing across the diamond to complete the inning ending double play.
In the top of the sixth, McKinney helped set the table with a lead off single. He then stole second, and was moved over to third by Francisco Lindor with one out. This brought up Pete Alonso, who burned his former nemesis in Paddack for an RBI single to tack on a big insurance run.
The Padres got themselves on the board in the bottom half, which was setup by Stroman, who made a big throwing error on a routine come backer in the sixth. After going to retrieve the ball, Alonso's throw got away from him as well, which allowed Fernando Tatis Jr. to reach third base on the play. A run came around to score in the next at-bat on an RBI groundout, which cut the deficit to 3-1.
Although the unearned run made things a bit tighter, Stroman made up for his error by ripping a two-out RBI double off Craig Stammen to put the Mets up 4-1 in the seventh.
Following his big RBI hit, the right-hander came back out for the bottom of the seventh, and recorded the first two outs. Unfortunately, Stroman could not get the third one, allowing a two out ground rule double to Tommy Pham.
This caused manager Luis Rojas to lift Stroman at 98 pitches, in favor of reliever Miguel Castro. Castro picked up his starter by inducing a fly out to get out of the inning unscathed.
After Alonso got hit on the elbow guard in the eighth, catcher James McCann came to the dish and cranked a two-run shot to bust the game wide open at 6-1.
McCann now has five home runs in his last 11 games.
And that's all the offense the Mets needed, as Castro and Trevor May combined to allow one run in the final two innings to secure the win.
The Amazins' finished off a tough seven-game stretch out west with two-straight wins and a 4-3 record. They are now 29-23 on the season and are 3.5 games up in the NL East after Sunday's victory.
The Mets will venture back to the east coast and will have an off day on Monday before starting a two-game set with the Orioles in Baltimore to wrap up their nine-game road trip.
