Francisco Lindor tied a career-high with seven RBI as the Mets beat the Athletics, 17-6, in Oakland on Friday night.
Here are the takeaways…
- Kodai Senga was solid in his third major league start on Friday but he had his hiccups. The first was in the third when the Athletics hit three soft singles, mostly bloops, to score one run. The other time was in the fourth inning when, after a two-run home run to Shea Langeliers, Senga walked a batter and another hitter reached on a strikeout that Tomas Nido let sneak pass him to the backstop, allowing them to reach first. Senga would get out of the inning.
However, Senga’s night would end in the fifth. After getting the first two outs, Aledmys Diaz took Senga deep. A walk to Conner Capel later and Buck Showalter pulled his starter before he could get the required five innings for the win.
While Senga was able to use his ghost-fork to get strikeouts, he often could not get 1-2-3 innings which led to him throwing 96 pitches, the most he’s thrown this season. His final line was: 4.2 IP, seven hits, four runs, four walks and struck out seven batters.
- The story for the Athletics was the lack of control from their pitchers. The Mets drew 12 walks in the first five innings (17 total -- a club record), which led to runs and just long, drawn-out innings. James Kaprielian started and in the second inning walked three batters before Brandon Nimmo worked a walk to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. Starling Marte followed with a walk of his own to give the Mets a 2-0 lead.
Then, Francisco Lindor swung at the first pitch, an 85 mph changeup over the plate, to smash a grand slam to right-center field. It was the first hit of the second inning. Lindor came into the game hitting .190 with zero home runs from the left side.
Lindor would come up in the fifth inning with the bases loaded and an 8-3 Mets lead and would clear the bases with a double. His seven RBI tied a career high and tied a Mets record for most in a single game by a shortstop and third by a player overall. That record is held by Carlos Delgado who had nine in June 2008.
The fourth and firth innings saw the Mets score six runs on just one hit in each. That's the first time it's happened in the same game since 1957.- With Senga unable to go deep into Friday's game, the Mets bullpen did a good job of nailing down the win. Stephen Nogosek was the first out, and pitched one inning of one-run ball when he left the game in the sixth inning after being hit in his pitching elbow by a line drive. Dennis Santana pitched 2.1 innings of one-run ball, while John Curtiss pitched the final inning to close out the game with the Mets winning 17-6.
Time of game: 3:29
Some notable hitters and their final lines
- Nimmo went 2-for-4 with two walks and two RBI
- Marte went 2-for-3 with three walks and three RBI
- Lindor went 2-for-5 with seven RBI and a walk
- Pete Alonso went 2-for-4 with two walks and two strikeouts