The Houston Astros defeated the New York Mets 9-6 at City Field in Queens, New York on Saturday afternoon. The win moves Houston back to even .500 on the season at 41-41 overall.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Mets sent Tylor Megill to the mound in this one. He worked an easy first inning, retiring the Astros in order with one strikeout.
Megill was opposed by Framber Valdez, who made the start for the Astros. He dealt with traffic in the first inning, but stranded two runners to match the zero on the board.
The Astros got the offense going in the top of the second. Jake Meyers worked a long at bat, and it payed off as he sent a solo shot to the opposite field to make it 1-0 Astros.
Valdez would struggle in the bottom half of that same inning. The Mets began it with two base runners. Then, a swinging bunt was compounded by an error on Valdez, scoring the Mets’ first run. An RBI single from Harrison Bader made it 2-1 Mets after that, still with no outs. Another run scored on an RBI double from Brandon Nimmo. Then, Pete Alonso brought home two more. That made it 5-1 Mets after two innings.
Valdez was not sharp in this outing, and he would work hard just to stay in the ballgame through the early-middle innings. The Mets added another in the third on a solo home run from Mark Vientos.
Trailing by five, it became apparent that the Houston offense would need to come alive. They did so in the fourth, starting by getting a couple of baserunners on. Jeremy Peña delivered a two-run double, cutting the lead to three. Then, Jon Singleton came through with a run-scoring single, and the Astros were within two at 6-4.
Those were all the runs the two starters would allow. Valdez lasted only four and two-thirds, allowing 10 hits. Megill went five and one-third, allowing five hits.
The score remained 6-4 until the eighth inning, where Houston made a push. They loaded the bases, then scored a run on a wild pitch. That made it 6-5. Then, Alex Bregman came up with the clutch two-out, two-strike single to right to score a pair and give the Astros their first lead of the day at 7-6.
In the top half of the ninth, the Stros would add a couple of important insurance runs. Mauricio Dubon delivered a two-out, two-run single to make it 9-6 and give Josh Hader a cushion heading into the final frame.
Hader used that cushion and closed things down in the ninth. He retired the Mets in order to secure the win for the Astros.
BIG NUMBER: 5
The Astros offense came up with five runs over the final two innings. That come from behind effort helped them secure an important road win.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Alex Bregman
Bregman only had one hit on the day, but it was the most important. His two-run single gave Houston its first lead of the game, which they did not relinquish.
UP NEXT: The Astros and Mets will finish their series tomorrow afternoon with first pitch set for 12:40 PM. You can hear the action on ESPN 103.7 Lafayette 104.1 Lake Charles.