Schwei's Mets Notes: Amazin' Comeback, Flores' Big Day And More
By John Schweibacher
» More Columns
The New York Mets have bounced back after being swept in their three-game series against the National League East-leading Washington Nationals last week with a four-game sweep of their own against the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs and a big comeback win over the Miami Marlins on the Fourth of July.
The Mets matched the fourth-largest comeback in franchise history, rallying after trailing 6-0 in the fourth inning for an 8-6 win over the Marlins on Monday at Citi Field.
Here are the Mets' three largest come-from-behind wins in club history:
• 9/2/72: NYM 11 at Hou 8 (trailed 8-0 in eighth)
• 6/30/00: Atl 8 at NYM 11 (trailed 8-1 in eighth)
• 6/2/11: Pit 8 at NYM 9 (trailed 7-0 in third)
The Mets completed the four-game sweep of the Cubs with a 14-3 win Sunday afternoon at Citi Field. Wilmer Flores tied Edgardo Alfonzo's club record with six hits in the victory.
MORE: Kallet: Mets Have Something Cookin' So Just Sit Back And Enjoy
Alfonzo's six-hit game was against the Astros on Aug. 30, 1999, in Houston. Prior to Flores on Sunday, there had only been six five-hit games at home by Mets players in club history, and all of them came at Shea Stadium:
• 9/8/72: John Milner vs. St. Louis
• 9/20/75: Rusty Staub vs. Philadephia
• 4/26/85: Wally Backman vs. Pittsburgh
• 7/24/87: Dave Magadan vs. Houston
• 5/5/06: Jose Reyes vs. Atlanta
• 8/21/08: Carlos Delgado vs. Atlanta
The Mets beat the Cubs 4-3 on Saturday night, ending Jake Arrieta's streak of 19 consecutive regular season road wins. The reigning National League Cy Young winner did lose Game 2 of the 2015 NLCS to the Mets at Citi Field.
Bartolo Colon got the win for New York, his first in the regular season against the Cubs. Colon, who was the winning pitcher in relief at Wrigley Field in the NLCS-clinching Game 4 last October, has now recorded wins against 29 of the current major league clubs. The Arizona Diamondbacks are the only current team Colon has not beaten.
The only other pitcher to defeat all 30 major league teams who at one time pitched for the Mets was Al Leiter. Leiter was the first pitcher in baseball history to accomplish the feat, doing so with the Mets on April 30, 2002, in a 10-1 win against the Diamondbacks in Arizona.
On Friday night, the Mets hit five home runs against Cubs starter Jason Hammel and went on to a 10-2 win. It was the third time in franchise history the Mets hit five home runs against one pitcher in a single game:
• 7/1/16: Chi at NYM vs. Jason Hammel (Cabrera 2, Loney, Nimmo and Cespedes)
• 4/19/05: NYM at Phi vs. Vicente Padilla (Diaz 2, Reyes, Piazza and Mientkiewicz)
• 6/15/99: NYM at Cin vs. Brett Tomko (Henderson, Olerud, Piazza, Alfonzo and Franco)
On Thursday night, the Mets took the opener of the four-game series with the Cubs, 4-3, with Jeurys Familia pitching in and out of a jam in the top of the ninth inning. It was the 27th save of the season for Familia, matching his uniform number and extending his franchise record with 27 straight saves to open a season.
It was also the 70th save for Familia going back to the start of the 2015 season, the second most in the major leagues over that span:
• Mark Melancon, Pit, 75
• Jeurys Familia, NYM, 71
• Trevor Rosenthal, Stl, 62
• Francisco Rodriguez, Mil/Det, 61
• Kenley Jansen, LAD, 60
• Zach Britton, Bal, 59
(Save totals through July 3)
The Washington Nationals completed the three-game sweep of the Mets with a 4-2 win Wednesday night in D.C. Daniel Murphy hit two home runs in the win to become the fourth player to homer twice in a game against the Mets after having played for the team in either the current or previous season.
The Elias Sports Bureau noted that each of the previous three all did so at Shea Stadium: Frank Thomas with the Astros in 1965, Tony Clark for the Yankees in 2004 and Mike Piazza with the Padres in 2006.
The Nationals beat the Mets, 5-0, last Tuesday night, handing Matt Harvey his 10th loss of the season. The last Mets pitcher prior to Harvey to reach 10 losses before the end of June was Jason Isringhausen, who was 4-10 through the month of June back in 1996. Isringhausen finished that season with a 6-14 record.
The Mets lost the opener of the three-game series against Washington 11-4 last Monday night at Nationals Park.
Ben Revere set the tone in the leadoff spot in the Nats' batting order as he stole three bases and scored three runs in the win. It was the seventh time one player had at least that many steals and runs scored against the Mets in a single game in club history:
• 6/27/16: Ben Revere, Was (3 runs, 3 stolen bases)
• 7/1/98: Shannon Stewart, Tor (4 runs, 3 stolen bases)
• 5/30/92: Deion Sanders, Cin (3 runs, 3 stolen bases)
• 5/7/89: Kevin Bass, Hou (3 runs, 4 stolen bases)
• 8/14/82: Leon Durham, Chi (3 runs, 3 stolen bases)
• 8/26/62: Maury Wills, LA (3 runs, 3 stolen bases)
• 5/25/62: Maury Wills, LA (3 runs, 3 stolen bases)
Happy Recap: Halfway Home. The Mets reached the halfway point of the 2016 schedule Sunday with a 44-37 record. They were 41-40 after 81 games last year.
Nine Miles of RoughRoad: June Swoon. Mets starters Jacob deGrom (0-3, 2.45 ERA), Matt Harvey (0-3, 2.83 ERA) and Steven Matz (0-2, 5.74 ERA) all failed to win a game in June.
