20 July 2023
Don’t look now, but the Mets might be on another run.
After two ugly but gutsy wins Sunday and Tuesday, the Mets finally played sound baseball and cruised to a 5-1 win over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night at Citi Field. It extended their winning streak to three games and it’s their ninth in their last 13 tries. The Mets took the series to win their third one of the month.
Brett Baty hit his second home run in as many nights and Justin Verlander one-hit Chicago (40-57) through six innings before surrendering one run in the seventh. The Mets (45-50) put up four runs to add to Baty’s homer in the fourth to go up 5-0.
With the clock ticking down to the trade deadline and the Mets entering the day eight games back from the last NL Wild Card spot, Buck Showalter’s club needed a game like this one and a performance like the one they got from Verlander.
The right-hander was extremely efficient, needing only 59 pitches to get through the first six innings. With one out in the seventh, Luis Robert Jr. got a slider on the outside corner and took it over the left-center fence. Verlander then walked Jake Burger and with two outs, Gavin Sheets legged out an infield single to put two on with two out.
Verlander (4-5) then struck out catcher Carlos Perez on four pitches to end the inning. It was the only snag he hit throughout the outing. He allowed only one earned run — Robert’s homer — on three hits, walked one and struck out seven over eight innings, matching a season-high mark for innings pitched.
The Mets scored all five runs off right-hander Touki Toussaint. Baty led off the second with his seventh home run of the season to put the Mets on the board. Toussaint’s command wavered in the fourth and the Mets took advantage, putting two on with none out. The red-hot Francisco Alvarez drove in his 40th run of the season with an RBI single. Runners were moved over on sacrifices and Brandon Nimmo delivered the big one with a two-out RBI double to put the Mets up 5-0.
Toussaint (0-3) lasted six innings. Right-hander Jesse Scholtens pitched two scoreless frames but it didn’t matter. The damage was done.
Adam Ottavino made the lead stand up with a scoreless ninth inning. There would be no bullpen implosion this time.
The Mets have shown that they’re capable of winning this month. Now they need to show that they’re capable of maintaining this winning play in order to stave off a fire sale.
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