Neil Walker’s go-ahead three-run homer in the seventh inning pushed the Mets to a 6-4 victory on Sunday. With the win, the Mets spared themselves from a four-game sweep to the Rockies and halted a four-game losing streak.
Victory came at great cost, as it often has in a season rife with injuries. This time, it was starting shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera who was helped off the field, felled by a strained patellar tendon in his left knee as he rounded third base to score.
At game’s end, the Mets hadn’t announced whether the veteran would require a DL stint. But when he suffered the exact same injury during spring training, he missed nearly three weeks. Cabrera, 30, had been among the most durable Mets, playing in 101 of the club’s 104 games.
Now, after leaving the game after the first inning, it’s possible that Cabrera becomes the sixth member of the Mets’ Opening Night lineup to land on the disabled list. Meanwhile, the Mets insist that the can avoid making slugger Yoenis Cespedes the seventh, though he was held out of action on Sunday with lingering soreness in his banged-up right quad.
Playing with a compromised lineup, the Mets fell behind 4-3 in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Carlos Gonzalez, his second RBI of the game.
But the Mets roared back in the seventh. Kelly Johnson reached on a fielder’s choice, James Loney worked a walk after a tense 10-pitch at-bat, and Walker stepped to the plate looking for his third hit of the game.
Walker had been coldest bat in the Mets lineup. When he was recently given a three-day breather from the starting lineup, his average had plummeted to .239.
But Walker has since caught fire, going 13-for-22. On Sunday, he tripled home a run, singled, and then blasted his three-run shot in the seventh off Boone Logan. It was Walker’s 17th home of the season and his sixth as a right-handed batter, which has historically been his weaker side.
Addison Reed pitched a scoreless eighth inning and Jeurys Familia closed it out in the ninth, his first save since blowing back to back opportunities.
Noah Syndergaard tossed a career-high 118 pitches in six innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits.
..... - Newsday