HOUSTON — A group that regarded like a battle of the titans sooner than the season started regarded additional like a race to the underside by the purpose it began. The Mets obtained right here into Houston to face the defending World Sequence champion Astros this week having misplaced 11 of their last 14 video video games, nevertheless the Astros obtained right here in driving the identical streak, dropping 9 of their last 12.
How the mighty have fallen.
Nonetheless, the Astros can’t be discounted. So if this assortment is a litmus check out of varieties, then the Mets have handed the first half. Behind a dominant effectivity by Max Scherzer, the Mets defeated the Astros, 11-1, on Monday at Minute Maid Park.
Scherzer (6-2) held the Astros to solely a single run — a solo shot by Yainer Diaz throughout the seventh inning — on 4 hits over eight innings. Earlier than Diaz’s dwelling run, Scherzer hadn’t allowed a runner earlier second base. He walked only one and struck out eight, lowering his ERA by 41 components to 4.04. It was his finest start of the 12 months and the first time he’s gone earlier seven innings since signing with the Mets. The ultimate time he acquired via eight, he was nonetheless a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers (September 12, 2021).
Scherzer’s slider failed him in opposition to the Yankees last week, nevertheless it was once more in an unlimited method in opposition to the Astros (39-34). He threw it 31 events and the Astros put 18 swings on it. They whiffed on seven of them.
The Mets (34-38) seen him 5 runs when Hunter Brown (6-4) imploded throughout the third. Daniel Vogelbach and Francisco Lindor every homered throughout the inning, with Lindor’s going for 3 runs. It was the second dwelling run throughout the last 4 days for Vogelbach, nevertheless merely his fourth of the season.
For Lindor, it was his 14th. The Mets had been already up 2-0 when Lindor, who was batting from the left facet, took a fastball inside and lifted it into the exact self-discipline seats.
Lindor later hit a two-run double off Shawn Dubin, a right-hander from Allegany, New York, who made his fundamental league debut. It obtained right here throughout the excessive of the ninth to push the game out of attain for the Astros and allowed a beleaguered Mets bullpen to keep away from losing its important late-game arms. The Mets in the end ended up scoring 5 off Dubin throughout the ninth.
Grant Hartwig made his giant league debut throughout the bottom of the ninth and it went considerably higher than Dubin’s. The best-hander threw a scoreless ninth with the help of a 6-3 double play.
Lindor went 2-for-5 with 5 RBI. Starling Marte went 2-for-5 with one RBI and two runs scored and Tommy Pham continued his scorching streak going 2-for-4 with a leadoff double throughout the sixth. Jeff McNeil drove him in with an RBI single. His single throughout the eighth scored Lindor. Pham has now hit safely in 10 of his last 11 video video games.
Brown was charged with a season-high six earned runs on seven hits over 5 2/3 innings.
After weeks of back-and-forth battles, extra-inning losses, sloppy errors and comebacks that fell temporary, the Mets lastly carried out the best way wherein they envisioned: A dominant pitching effectivity from certainly one of many recreation’s best and a lineup that compelled a worthwhile pitcher to exit the game early.
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