The Mets started a three game series against the Padres on Monday night. The Padres were sitting in a playoff spot, just a game ahead of the Diamondbacks for the final Wild Card spot. Walker Buehler was getting the start for the Padres, while Nolan McLean was taking the mound for the Mets, hoping to add another entry to what was shaping up to be a fantastic first full season for the rookie pitcher.
The first inning was a challenge for McLean. It looked like it might be an easy inning after Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a line out right into McLean’s glove for a first out on the first pitch of the game. But back-to-back singles put two runners on with one out. Two more singles followed immediately after, but each one was hit to Carson Benge, and each resulted on an out at the plate with Benge throwing both Jake Cronenworth and Manny Machado out at the plate on consecutive plays.
The Mets led off the bottom of the first with an A.J. Ewing single and a Francisco Lindor walk, putting two runners on for the Mets with no outs. Bo Bichette then hit a single to drive in Ewing as the first run of the game on his bobblehead night. Luis Robert Jr. drove in the Mets second run of the game two batters later, hitting a sacrifice fly to bring Lindor in to score.
The second was another difficult endeavor for McLean. Two walks and a hit batsman loaded the bases with no outs, spelling trouble for New York. Luis Rengifo hit a comebacker to McLean, who threw home for a force out to keep the Padres scoreless, but also kept the bases loaded with just one out. The Padres finally cashed in when Tatis, up for the second time in the game, hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Gavin Sheets and cut the Mets lead down to one run. Conenworth hit a single, but this time Ewing came through for McLean, throwing Xander Bogaerts out at the plate to end the inning.
McLean and Buehler traded scoreless innings for the next few frames. McLean came out of the game after six innings, having allowed just the one run. Keeping it to one run was impressive given that he gave up six hits and four walks while only striking out three, which helped illustrate the full team effort on defense alongside McLean.
The Mets bullpen kept the Padres locked down, with Jonathan Pintaro, Nate Lavender, and Daniel Duarte combining for three scoreless innings, with Pintaro allowing the only hit of the final three innings. Daniel Duarte got the save with two strikeouts in the ninth inning.
Nolan McLean got the win, thanks to the spectacular defense (particularly that of his fellow rookies Benge and Ewing). The Mets play two more games against the Padres at home, with Tuesday’s game featuring Zac Thornton going against Padres’ deadline acquisition Robbie Ray.
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Box scores
Win Probability Added
Big Mets winner: Nolan McLean, +26% WPA
Big Mets loser: Carson Benge, -7% WPA
Mets pitchers: +63% WPA
Mets hitters: -13% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Fernando Tatis Jr. double play in the seventh inning, +14.4% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Xander Bogaerts’ walk in the second, -8.7% WPA