SAN FRANCISCO -- Can Yoenis Cespedes really rescue the New York Mets?
Two pitches after Curtis Granderson broke up Jeff Samardzija’s no-hit bid with a leadoff double in the seventh, Cespedes broke a scoreless tie with a two-run homer. And behind eight scoreless innings from Noah Syndergaard, the Mets beat the San Francisco Giants 2-0 on Sunday at AT&T Park to split the four-game series.
The Mets remained 4.5 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals for the second wild-card spot.
“We’ve had a tough, tough time,” manager Terry Collins said. “But if you’re going to win, your good players have got to play good. You look what Noah did tonight, what Ces has done the last couple of games, we ride those guys. Hopefully this is the start of what we’ve been looking to do.”
Cespedes returned from the disabled list on Friday after finally getting time off to allow a strained right quadriceps to heal. He homered twice on Saturday to fuel a Mets win, then had the game-deciding blast Sunday.
Before landing on the DL, Cespedes tried to play through the injury for a month. He hit only .205 with one homer and seven RBIs in 14 games during that span while struggling to generate power with the balky quadriceps.
“I haven’t had anybody that the ball comes off the barrel like that. I mean nobody,” Collins said. “I saw Barry [Bonds] for a lot of years in Pittsburgh. He hit a lot of home runs. But the ball just jumps off [Cespedes'] bat. As we’ve seen, when he’s healthy, he’s got all the talent in the world. That didn’t even look like it was a good pitch and he hit it that far. He golfed it. He’s been working on that. It finally paid off. That was a tee shot.”
Sunday’s game marked the first time the Mets had Granderson, Cespedes, Jay Bruce and Neil Walker in the same lineup, but Samardzija nonetheless held the Mets hitless through six innings.
Samardzija had entered the game with an 11.40 ERA in three career starts against the Mets. That was the worst ERA of any of the 152 pitchers to make at least three starts against the Mets since 2009, when Samardzija made his first career start while with the Chicago Cubs.
Syndergaard set an efficient tone early, requiring only 11 pitches to breeze through his opening frame. Bucking a trend of high pitch counts causing him to depart games early, Syndergaard limited the Giants to two hits and two walks while striking out six in eight innings. He tossed 98 pitches.
“This is really the best he’s pitched in a long time,” Collins said.
Said Syndergaard: “For the past month and a half, I feel like today was the first day I went out there and relaxed and had fun out there. I just kept things simple. The past month and a half I’ve been trying to think too far ahead. ... I’ll throw two or three pitches in succession, and then my heart rate will start elevating a little bit. What I noticed today was being able to take a deep breath and get back on the mound and get back to the job at hand.”
Collins was prepared to send Syndergaard out for the ninth inning in pursuit of his first career complete game, but Thor told the staff eight innings was sufficient.
“He showed me something,” Collins said. “He came off and said, ‘Look, it’s too late in the year to be a hero. I’m getting a little tired.’ A lot of guys wouldn’t have said that.”
Said Syndergaard: "I thought it would be the best decision to hand it over to the best closer in the game and get a win and get back on the bus and go to St. Louis."
Syndergaard also figured out a way to keep the limited baserunners against him off-balance -- reducing his leg kick and being somewhat quicker to the plate. The first two batters to reach -- Trevor Brown on a walk in the third and Eduardo Nunez on an infield single in the fourth -- were caught stealing by catcher Rene Rivera. Entering the game, would-be base stealers had been 40-for-44 in swipes against Syndergaard.
"I've been working really hard in my side work, just trying to get more fluid and get more rhythm to home plate, and to try not to be too predictable with runners on base," Syndergaard said.
With the win, the Mets (62-62) returned to .500.
They now have a hold-your-breath day off before opening a critical series at Busch Stadium against the Cardinals, who occupy the second wild-card spot.
Steven Matz, who had been scratched from Friday’s start against the Giants, is due to be examined for shoulder discomfort in New York by team doctors on Monday. Meanwhile, Walker is expected to land on paternity leave and miss the series against the Cardinals. Walker plans to take a redeye flight home to Pittsburgh and be present on Monday when doctors plan to induce labor with his wife, Niki.
“We’re going to lose Walk for a couple of days, probably, but we’re going in there healthy,” Collins said about the showdown with the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. “We weren’t sure that was going to happen 10 days ago. We didn’t know what kind of lineup we were going to have.”
