OAKLAND, Calif. — Despite getting out-hit by the Athletics, navigating nine innings with the bottom four pitchers on their roster and blowing a late lead, the Mets stole a win anyway, 4-3, after scoring the go-ahead run on a wild pitch in the top of the 10th inning on Sunday afternoon.
Oakland reliever Zach Jackson faced four batters and walked three of them. When Francisco Lindor drew ball four, the pitch skipped away from catcher Shea Langeliers, allowing Eduardo Escobar — who opened the extra inning as the automatic runner on second base — to skip home.
David Robertson escaped a second-and-third, one-out jam in the bottom of the 10th.
He seemed to be the only one of the Mets’ four usual high-leverage relievers able to pitch. Drew Smith (four outs Saturday) and Adam Ottavino (28 pitches Saturday) seemingly were unavailable. It’s not clear why Brooks Raley (five pitches Saturday) wasn’t used.
Robertson’s save finished a highly eventful final few innings that began in the bottom of the eighth, when John Curtiss allowed Langeliers a go-ahead, two-run double. In the top of the ninth, Pete Alonso hit a tying home run off Dany Jimenez, who walked the next three batters. With the bases loaded and one out, Escobar grounded into a double play against Sam Moll.
Jimmy Yacabonis, making his Mets debut, allowed his first two batters to reach in the bottom of the ninth but retired the next three. The middle out came via Brandon Nimmo, who made a diving catch — his second of the game — in left-centerfield to keep the game going.
That salvaged a strong outing from righthander Jose Butto, who held Oakland to one run in five innings (plus one batter). He made a spot start in place of Max Scherzer, whom the Mets pushed back to Wednesday because of back soreness.
Butto didn’t have any perfect innings but provided the Mets with about as much as they could have expected. He scattered five hits and four walks and struck out two.
Francisco Alvarez went 0-for-4 but took significantly better swings — hitting three balls 95 mph or harder — while playing for a second day in a row. Buck Showalter said before the game that he thought it was important to start Alvarez in a second consecutive game because “he’s used to playing every day,” but the manager would “not necessarily” do that more often moving forward.
What did Showalter think of Alvarez’s recent at-bats?
“Every at-bat it’s the seventh game of the World Series,” he said. “But I love the fact that he doesn’t take it behind the plate.”
