Mets 4, Orioles 3 (Citi Field, Flushing, NY)
Mets Record: 66-61
Mets Streak: W1
Mets Last 10: 6-4
WP: Edwin Diaz (5-1)
LP: Seranthony Dominguez (3-4)
Seat On The Korner: Jesse Winker
We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.
Today's Seat On The Korner goes to Jesse Winker. His brief Mets career since Aug. 1 had been so-so, with a .275 average and 3 RBI in 53 plate appearances, but he did what he'd always done to make Mets fans crazy throughout his career with the likes of Seattle, Cincinnati, and Washington. Pinch hitting in the bottom of the ninth, Winker fell behind early, worked the count even, and then hit a full-count pitch hard. His shot to left center kept carrying and landed in the grandstand among raised arms and shouts of joy. The second walkoff home run in the ninth inning of the series with Baltimore was Winker’s first Mets home run was a doozy. It sent him right down to the Kiner’s Korner studio. Don’t get any Gatorade on the set, Jesse.
Need To Know:
The win on Wednesday was like a carbon copy of Monday night's game. Same winning pitcher (Edwin Diaz), losing pitcher (Seranthony Dominguez), and the Mets won on a home run by to left-center touching off an over-the-top celebration. These are the kind of repeats most Mets fans can live with.
Lost in the excitement is Francisco Lindor's solid game with a double and a home run. That gives him 25 home runs and 25 steals for the third time in his career. He is the first shortstop to reach that number thrice, but Kansas City's Bobby Witt will probably get there soon.
Wednesday marked the first time the Mets have started three lefties in a three-game series in the Citi Field era. The last time was in 2008 in the last year at Shea Stadium. The trio? Johan Santana, Oliver Perez, and Claudio Vargas.
The Mets' post All-Star Game record stands at 17-15. The next two opponents are San Diego (22-6 in that span) and Arizona (22-8). The four-game series starts Thursday night at Petco Park with Luis Severino (8-6, 3.91 ERA) making his first start since his complete-game shutout; Dylan Cease (12-9, 3.46) at 9:40 p.m.
Brandon Nimmo batted cleanup for the first time since 2017.
J.D. Martinez turned 37 on Wednesday and received the present of an RBI when the Orioles could not turn a double play on the glacially-moving Martinez.
The 2024 season marks the 25th anniversary of the 1999 Mets team that won 97 games and grabbed the only Wild Card available at the time with victory win in game 163 in Cincinnati in a one-game playoff. (That most exciting of unscheduled games has since been eliminated.) On the SNY broadcast Steve Gelbs interviewed two of the stars of that team: Robin Ventura and Al Leiter, who tossed a complete-game shutout in that game in Cincy. The veteran-laden club was among the best offensive Mets teams in history and was also arguably the best defensive club in team annals--if seeking proof, check out the cover of Sports Illustrated that summer that posited that Ventura, Rey Ordonez, Edgardo Alfonzo, and John Olerud might be the best infield ever. That postseason is remembered for Todd Pratt's walkoff home run to win the Division Series and Robin Ventura's one-of-a-kind grand slam that became a game-winning single due to Pratt's exuberance on the bases in the 15th inning in the rain to stave off elimination against Atlanta in the NLCS. Recommended reading: Matthew Callan's Yells for Ourselves: A Story of New York City and the New York Mets at the Dawn of the Millennium.
Turning Point:
Jesse Winker's biggest moment as a Met was his full-count mash to send everyone home happy and give the Mets a 5-4 homestand that was anything but easy (or pretty). Winker should have earned forgiveness for his home run for the Nationals as a pinch hitter on July 4 (against the since released Adrian Houser) that accounted for the only run of Washington's 1-0 victory over the Mets.
Three Keys:
Manaea Superb But Unlucky
Sean Manaea retired the first 17 batters and went seven innings for the fourth time in five games. He allowed just three hits (two of them infield hits) and left with the tying run on in the eighth inning. Converted starter Jose Butto, not pitching on his usual regimen of multiple days off between appearances, walked two batters and allowed a game-tying sacrifice fly Adley Rutschman, Butto pitched out of further trouble by getting Gunnar Henderson to pop up.
Number 20 for Number 27
Mark Vientos, who had a hit in all nine games of the homestand, crushed a fastball from Craig Kimbrell to right-center to give the Mets a 3-2 lead in the seventh. That was his 20th home run in 286 at bats. The announcing team of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, and Ron Darling called the game from a suite three decks lower than their usual perch. Darling noted the difference in his seat and the way his ear reacts when a hit like that explodes off the bat: "When you hear that sound, they never come back. Ever."
Hit Batter, Then Hit
Jackson Holliday, the much ballyhooed scion of a major league All-Star, dropped the exchange on a would-be double play to allow the Mets to take a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth, took a pitch in the shoulder with two outs in the sixth to break up Sean Manaea's bid at perfection after 5.2 innings. The next pitch was deposited over the wall in right field by Austin Slater for the first hit of the game and his first home run as an Oriole. It was eerily reminiscent of Monday night when David Peterson was pitching brilliantly, but balked in a run with two outs in the seventh. His next pitch was drilled for a game-tying home run by Ramon Urias.
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