Schwei's Mets Notes: Historic Win For Amazins On Sunday In Atlanta
By John Schweibacher
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The Mets capped a week of comebacks with an unprecedented come-from-behind victory Sunday to finish their road trip with seven straight wins and reduce their magic number to clinch the NL East to 11.
Daniel Murphy's three-run, game-tying homer capped a two-out, bases-empty rally in the ninth, and the Mets scored three times in the 10th to come away with a 10-7 victory in Atlanta on Sunday.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first win in franchise history in which the Mets trailed by three or more runs with two outs and no runners on in the ninth inning or later.
Yoenis Cespedes had a home run and two RBIs Saturday in the 6-4 win over the Braves after hitting a double, a home run and driving in three in the Mets' 5-1 win on Friday night.
Cespedes now has 16 homers and 41 RBIs in his first 40 games with the Mets. The Elias Sports Bureau notes that he is only the second player since RBIs became an official statistic in 1920 to switch clubs mid-season and record at least 15 home runs and 40 RBIs within his first 40 games playing for his new team. Hank Sauer was the first to do so with 15 homers and 47 RBIs over his first 40 games for the Cubs in 1949 after being traded by the Reds.
Cespedes has hit eight homers in September. Including games played in early October, four Mets have had at least nine homers in the final month(s) of a regular season:
· Gary Carter 13 (Sept/Oct 1985)
· Howard Johnson 10 (Sept/Oct 1991)
· Mike Piazza 9 (Sept 2002)
· Darryl Strawberry 9 (Sept 1984)
· Darryl Strawberry 9 (Sept/Oct 1988)
Jeurys Familia picked up his 40th save of the season Saturday night, closing out the 6-4 win against Atlanta. Familia is just the third pitcher in club history to reach the 40-save mark in a single season:
· Armando Benitez 43 (2001)
· Armando Benitez 41 (2000)
· Billy Wagner 40 (2006)
· Jeurys Familia 40 (2015)
The Mets won the opener of the four-game series in Atlanta, 7-2, on Thursday. Bartolo Colon got the win and is now 13-1 with a 2.52 ERA against NL East opponents this season but just 1-10 with a 6.05 ERA against everyone else. The veteran right-hander's scoreless streak was snapped at 31 innings when the Braves scored two runs against him in the seventh. Colon's streak equaled the third-longest by a Mets pitcher in club history:
· R.A. Dickey 32. 2/3 in 2012
· Jerry Koosman 31 2/3 in 1973
· Tom Seaver 31 in 1971
· Dwight Gooden 31 in 1985
· Bartolo Colon 31 in 2015
The Mets completed the three-game sweep of Washington with a 5-3 win Wednesday night. Stephen Strasburg finished with 13 strikeouts over 7 1/3 innings, but took the loss when the Mets rallied for three in the eighth.
It was the seventh time a pitcher lost to the Mets despite striking out at least 13 in a game:
· 9/9/15 Stephen Strasburg, Mets defeat Nats, 5-3, 13 strikeouts
· 4/10/05 John Smoltz, Mets defeat Braves, 6-1, 15 strikeouts
· 8/20/95 Hideo Nomo, Mets defeat Dodgers, 5-3, 13 strikeouts
· 9/16/81 Steve Carlton, Mets defeat Phillies, 5-4, 15 strikeouts
· 9/15/69 Steve Carlton, Mets defeat Cardinals, 4-3, 19 strikeouts
· 8/19/69 Juan Marichal, Mets defeat Giants 1-0 (13 innings), 13 strikeouts
· 6/14/65 Jim Maloney, Mets defeat Reds, 1-0 (11 innings), 18 strikeouts
The Mets scored six runs in the seventh inning and once in the eighth to overcome a six-run deficit and go on to an 8-7 win over the Nationals on Tuesday. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it marked only the second time in the era of divisional play in which a first-place team came back from a deficit of six or more runs to defeat a team that trailed them by five or fewer games in the standings in September or October.
The only other team to do that since 1969 is the Mariners, who defeated the A's by a score of 10-7 after trailing by six runs on Sept. 22, 1995. Oakland entered the contest trailing Seattle by five games in the AL West.
The Mets came from behind to beat the Nationals, 8-5, to win the opener of the series on Labor Day after Jon Niese gave up a three-run lead by allowing five runs in the fourth. It was Niese's fourth consecutive game in which he allowed five or more runs. Four Mets pitchers have given up five runs or more in at least five straight starts:
· Jay Hook (6), 9/15/62-4/21/63
· Al Leiter (5), 5/4/99-5/31/99
· Mike Hampton (5), 4/12/00-5/3/00
· Johan Santana (5), 7/6/12-8/17/12
Happy Recap: 30-year wait. The four-game sweep of the Braves was the Mets' first at Turner Field and first in Atlanta since taking all four games at Fulton-County Stadium from July 4-7, 1985.
Nine Miles of Rough Road: Tyler Clippard. Three home runs allowed, two of which blew Mets' leads, in his last five appearances.
