Schwei's Mets Notes: Gsellman's Rare Feat At The Plate, DeGrom's Dominance In Pittsburgh And More
By John Schweibacher
» More Columns
After dropping two of three to San Diego last week the New York Mets have won three of four against Pittsburgh and Milwaukee.
The Mets beat the Brewers, 4-2, on Memorial Day. Robert Gsellman allowed two runs over seven innings to pick up his fourth win of the year. He also drove in two runs with a sacrifice fly and a bases-loaded walk.
The only other starting pitchers in Mets history to win a game and drive in at least two runs without a getting a base hit were Dwight Gooden, who knocked in a pair of runs with a sac fly and a groundout in a 14-4 victory over the Reds at Shea Stadium on July 7, 1984, and Mark Clark, who also had a sacrifice fly and an RBI grounder in an 8-2 win at Shea over the Astros on July 11, 1996.
The Mets took two of three against the Pirates over the weekend in Pittsburgh, finishing the series with a 7-2 win Sunday night. Matt Harvey won his second straight start, allowing one run and six hits while striking out four in six innings.
MORE: Cespedes, Matz, Lugo Getting Closer To Return To Mets
Harvey had not won consecutive starts since his first two outings of the season. Here are the Mets' records with each of their starting pitchers so far in 2017:
• Jacob deGrom, 6-4
• Robert Gsellman, 5-4
• Zach Wheeler, 4-5
• Matt Harvey, 4-6
• Noah Syndergaard, 2-3
• Rafael Montero, 1-1
• Tommy Milone, 0-3
• Adam Wilk, 0-1
On Saturday night, the Pirates rallied to beat the Mets 5-4 in 10 innings. The Mets bullpen blew a save for the fifth time in seven previous chances, as John Jaso singled home the tying run against Addison Reed in the ninth inning and the winning run off Josh Edgin with two outs in the 10th.
MORE: Palladino: Losing Familia Will Prove Biggest Blow To Mets' Playoff Hunt
Tyler Pill took the loss in his big-league debut after loading the bases in the 10th. He became the sixth reliever in club history to lose in his major league debut and the second straight to have it happen in a game at PNC Park:
• 5/27/17: Mets 4 at Pit 5 (10), Tyler Pill
• 7/12/13: Mets 2 at Pit 3 (11), Gonzalez Germen
• 4/7/10: Fla 7 at Mets 6 (10), Hisanori Takahashi
• 4/7/97: Mets 2 at LA 3 (15), Joe Crawford
• 4/27/95: Mets 7 at Col 8, Kevin Lomon
• 5/16/87: SF 5 at Mets 4 (10), Jeff Innis
On Friday night, former Pirate Neil Walker went 3-for-5 with two home runs and four RBIs, as the Mets ended their two-game skid with an 8-1 win over Pittsburgh.
Walker became the first Mets hitter with a two-homer game at PNC Park, which opened in 2001. There had been seven previous games in Pittsburgh in which a Mets batter hit a pair of home runs -- all of them came at Three Rivers Stadium, the Pirates' home from 1970 through 2000:
• 4/14/00: Mets 8 at Pit 5 (12), Mike Piazza
• 6/29/97: Mets 10 at Pit 8, John Olerud
• 6/17/90: Mets 4 at Pit 3, Mark Carreon
• 5/24/78: Mets 5 at Pit 6 (10), Willie Montanez
• 4/18/76: Mets 5 at Pit 7, Dave Kingman
• 9/10/75: Mets 4 at Pit 8, Dave Kingman
• 7/31/75: Mets 6 at Pit 2, Dave Kingman
DeGrom went 8 1/3 innings, striking out 10 and walking one in the win. Only two other Mets starters had at least 10 K's and one or zero walks in a game at Pittsburgh:
• 5/22/12: Mets 3 at Pit 2, R.A. Dickey, 7 IP, 0 BB, 11 K
• 9/13/76: Mets 5 at Pit 0, Tom Seaver, 9 IP, 1 BB, 12 K
• 7/18/68: Mets 3 at Pit 0, Tom Seaver, 9 IP, 1 BB, 10 K
On Thursday night, the Padres took the rubber game of the three-game series at Citi Field with a 4-3 win over the Mets. Dinelson Lamet, in his major league debut, struck out eight batters while allowing only one run over five innings to earn the win. Lamet became the third starting pitcher to strike out at least eight Mets batters in his big-league debut:
• 5/10/03: Roger Deago (SD), 8 K, 6 IP
• 4/7/13: Jose Fernandez (Mia), 8 K, 5 IP
• 8/23/01: Jason Jennings (Col), 8 K, 9 IP
On Wednesday night, the Mets blew an early 5-1 lead and lost to the Padres. Trailing San Diego 6-5 in the bottom of the ninth, the Mets loaded the bases with none out, but failed to score, as Curtis Granderson and Rene Rivera each struck out and Juan Lagares flied out to end the game.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last time the Mets lost a one-run game in the ninth inning after loading the bases with no outs was on July 8, 1992 against the Braves at Fulton County Stadium.
In that game, the Mets trailed 2-1 with the bases full in the ninth, but Howard Johnson popped out and Willie Randolph grounded into a double play against ex-Met Alejandro Pena to end the game.
Last Tuesday night, Michael Conforto led off the bottom of the first with a home run and added a two-run single later in the inning, as the Mets scored seven runs in the first in their 9-3 win over the Padres.
Elias noted that Conforto became the first player in Mets history to hit a leadoff homer in the first inning and get an RBI hit later that inning.
Happy Recap: Mr. May. Neil Walker is hitting .330 (32-for-97) this month, with four home runs and 18 runs batted in.
Nine Miles of Rough Road: One That Got Away. The Mets loss in Pittsburgh ended the a streak of 104 consecutive wins in regular-season road games in which they led in the ninth inning or later.
