Jeff McNeil multiplied in Starling Marte with the winning sudden spike in demand for the principal pitch of the tenth inning and the New York Mets stretched out their series of wins to a season-high six games by beating the San Diego Padres 7-5 on Friday night in a matchup of costly, failing to meet expectations groups.
McNeil’s grounder to right field off rookie Tom Cosgrove (1-2) went just inside the line, past diving first baseman Jake Cronenworth, and brought Marte in as the automatic runner. McNeil, the 2022 NL batting champion, was scored by Francisco Alvarez with his fourth consecutive single.
Francisco Lindor, who had three hits and three RBIs in his follow-up to his first five-hit game of his career the night before, gave the Mets an extra run with a two-run single.
The Mets improved to 3-2 in the third when Lindor hit a home run off Yu Darvish. It was his nineteenth. In the fifth, Daniel Vogelbach tied the game at three with a single off Darvish. In the first, he also had a RBI single.
The Mets had the bases stacked with one out in the 10th before Scratch Martinez got Marte to skip into a 1-2-3 twofold play.
The winning ninth inning was pitched by Drew Smith (4-3).
In the 10th, Manny Machado scored two runs with his 13th home run for the Padres.
The teams finished in fourth place in their divisions with records of 41-46. With approximately $360 million, the Mets have baseball’s largest payroll, followed by the Padres with approximately $250 million.
The Padres had Worldwide championship desires subsequent to arriving at the NL Title Series. En route, they wiped out the 101-win Mets in a special case series and the 111-win Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS. They brought back Fernando Tatis Jr. from an 80-game doping suspension and signed shortstop Xander Bogaerts to a $280 million, 11-year contract, but they have struggled offensively.
Under owner Steve Cohen, the Mets went on a jaw-dropping spending spree, but their bullpen has been a problem since Edwin Diaz was lost before the season to a knee injury.
When Machado hit an RBI double off Justin Verlander with two outs and hustled home on a fielding error by third baseman Luis Guillorme, the Padres took a 2-1 lead. Guillorme made an amazing jumping catch of Gary Sanchez’s line drive in the 6th.
Trent Grisham’s RBI twofold in the second gave San Diego a 3-1 lead.
In five innings, Darvish, who had been ill for less than two weeks, gave up three runs and seven hits.
Verlander, making simply his third profession start against the Padres, surrendered three runs, two acquired, and five hits in six innings.
