NEW YORK — The 5,400 square-foot video board that looms over the giant pop-up apple beyond center field showed Blake Snell warming up before the bottom of the first inning Saturday night.
Next to the image of the Padres left-hander was a nugget of information, a kind bulletin to let the Citi Field crowd know Snell had walked six batters in his previous start.
Snell had his back to the board. He didn't see it. Not that it would have bothered him.
He had one thing in mind, and that was throwing the ball over the plate.
That was something he had not done enough of through his first 10 starts.
If what Snell proceeded to do wasn't brilliant, it was definitely resilient. And his five scoreless innings were enough to keep the Padres around long enough for Manny Machado to ruin what had been shaping up to be a masterpiece by Mets starter Chris Bassitt.
Jurickson Profar's single leading off the sixth inning was the Padres' second hit off Bassitt, and Machado's two-out homer — coming one pitch after Bassitt thought he had thrown strike three but was denied by umpire Jim Wolf — was their third.
It was also the difference in a 2-1 victory.
Snell was pulled after throwing 85 pitches.
Nabil Crismatt worked a scoreless seventh. Adrian Morejón struck out the three batters he faced in the seventh, allowed a leadoff single in the eighth and recorded a fourth strikeout before giving way to Luis Garcia with one out and a runner on first.
After Garcia induced a double-play grounder to end the eighth, Taylor Rogers allowed a run in the ninth inning but held on for his second save in two nights and his major league-leading 28th of the season.
It was the Padres' second straight victory over the National League East leaders coming out of the All-Star break.
The Padres hope it was also a significant step forward for Snell.
The former Cy Young Award winner possesses an arsenal of breaking pitches that can be virtually unhittable and one of the hardest fastballs of any lefty in the majors. He is, however, often beset by inconsistency.
Snell entered Saturday with a 5.22 ERA and 1.48 WHIP, the bloated numbers almost entirely due to spurts in which he loses command of his pitches.
He had walked 31 batters in 50 innings and, moreover, too often put himself in situations where batters could essentially predict what was coming. He had allowed a .357 batting average when behind in counts and a .115 average when ahead. The latter mark would have been the best in the majors if he had enough innings to qualify. Just 60% of his pitches were strikes.
Snell worked from ahead the majority of Saturday's game, getting strikes on 67% of his pitches, as he allowed four hits and walked two.
There were plenty of opportunities for Snell to unravel. But he never became the wild man version of himself.
Not in the second inning when a single and walk put runners at first and second with no outs and he had trouble deciphering the commands on PitchCom and the strike zone seemed to get smaller and the Mets fouled off pitch after pitch. He escaped with two groundballs, the second of which led to a double play.
Not in the third inning after a leadoff single and a sacrifice bunt put a runner at second with one out. A fly ball out and a strikeout ended that threat.
Not in the fourth inning when Pete Alonso's one-out double gave the Mets another runner in scoring position with less than two outs.
Not in the fifth inning when he got up 1-2 on the first batter, Luis Guillorme, and threw three straight balls. Snell followed that with a four-pitch strikeout and a fly ball out on the first pitch, and after Brandon Nimmo's lead-off single, with the crowd at its most feverish "Let's Go Mets" level of the night, he struck out Starling Marte on three pitches.
The Padres went ahead in the top of the sixth, and Melvin went against his usual route of sticking with his starting pitcher deep into games and turned to Crismatt.
Luke Voit's leadoff single in the seventh was the Padres' fourth and final hit off Bassitt, who tied a career high with 11 strikeouts in his seven innings.
The Padres did not have a baserunnerr until Bassitt hit Nomar Mazara leading off the fifth inning. Eric Hosmer's single with one out was their first hit.
Since the Padres put seven runs on Bassitt in 3 1/3 innings on June 8, he has turned in six consecutive quality starts.
But the Mets have scored just one run in the two games this weekend, while the Padres have driven in four of their five runs with three homers.
