Buck’s crew outlasts A’s, finish sweep
OAKLAND, Calif. — Somehow, some way the Mets got their series sweep on Sunday.
A fairly ho-hum afternoon at the Oakland Coliseum turned into a spirited backand-forth against the Athletics in the late innings that included a blown lead by the Mets’ bullpen, redemption in the form of a Pete Alonso home run and game-saving Brandon Nimmo catch.
“The guys fought back,” Nimmo said after the Mets’ 4-3 victory in 10 innings that extended their winning streak to four games, which included sweeping three against these dreadful A’s.
The Mets await Brett Baty, who is expected in the lineup Monday when they begin a three-game series against the Dodgers. The bat will be welcomed to a lineup that produced seven runs in the final two games combined of this series after exploding for 17 on Friday night.
Buck Showalter said his high-leverage setup arms — Brooks Raley, Drew Smith and Adam Ottavino — weren’t options Sunday following their usage a day earlier. John Curtiss was entrusted a 2-1 lead in the eighth and buckled, surrendering a two-run double to Shea Langeliers.
But Alonso continued his early-season rampage with his second homer in the series, tying it in the ninth, before Nimmo dived to the grass in left-center in the bottom of the inning to deprive Jace Peterson of the gamewinning hit after Jimmy Yacabonis had walked Tony Kemp and allowed a single to Brent Rooker to begin the inning.
Eduardo Escobar, the automatic runner, raced home from third base on a wild pitch by Zach Johnson in the 10th inning for the go-ahead run before David Robertson got the final three outs.
Showalter said his bullpen options were limited once Denyi Reyes completed the sixth and seventh innings scoreless. That left Curtiss and Yacabonis ahead of Robertson.
“We can’t pitch the same people every night,” Showalter said. “I wasn’t going to pitch Ottavino. I wasn’t going to pitch [Smith] and I was trying to stay away from Raley. I might have taken a oneinning pop with Raley in the 11th, but we were down to diminishing returns there.”
The Mets’ only scoring through eight innings came on solo homers by Tommy Pham and Francisco Lindor. Alonso’s blast in the ninth gave him eight homers in 16 games, the fastest start by a Mets player since Jeff Kent set that pace in 1994.
“Coming out here for [10 games] is a pretty big challenge for us,” Alonso said, referring to the West Coast trip. “We played really good ball this series and hopefully we can continue to play great team baseball for the rest of the road trip.”
Lindor completed a big weekend — he had seven RBIs, including a grand slam, in Friday’s victory — with a solo homer in the sixth inning that gave the Mets a 2-1 lead. The blast was Lindor’s fourth of the season.
The Mets got what they needed from Jose Butto, who allowed one earned run on five hits and four walks with two strikeouts over five innings. The right-hander was removed at 83 pitches after walking Peterson to begin the sixth. Reyes got three outs in the inning without the run scoring.
Butto, who was inserted to give the Mets a six-man rotation this turn through — Max Scherzer was bumped to Wednesday with lingering back soreness — endured plenty of early traffic, but survived. He finally dented in the fifth, allowing an RBI single to Esteury Ruiz after Kevin Smith singled leading off the inning and stole second. Ruiz also stole second in the inning before Butto recorded three straight outs to keep it 1-1.
Pham’s homer in the second got the Mets their first run. Pham jumped on a fastball from JP Sears and cleared the fence in rightcenter above the 388-foot sign for his second homer of the season.
Butto received defensive help in the bottom of the inning as Nimmo raced into the right-center gap and dived to rob Aledmys Diaz of a double. Butto followed by allowing consecutive singles in the inning, but escaped with his 1-0 lead intact.
“I’m glad I was able to get there,” Nimmo said. “The game could have gone differently if that ball falls.”