An ugly stretch of Mets futility Friday meant a franchise icon’s record is now shared, but the afternoon into early evening wasn’t a total bust for manager Luis Rojas’ crew.
Dominic Smith delivered a walk-off RBI single in the eighth inning, allowing the Mets to escape Game 1 of a doubleheader with a 2-1 victory over the Phillies at Citi Field.
Smith, batting after Pete Alonso had been intentionally walked with the automatic runner on second for extra innings, slapped a single through the middle against Ranger Suarez and was swarmed by teammates, who tore off his jersey on the field.
Victory came after Aaron Nola struck out 10 straight batters to match a record held alone by Tom Seaver for the last 51 years.
“We had a tough game against a very tough pitcher, and the guys didn’t give up,” Rojas said.
Dominic Smith is mobbed his is teammates after his walk-off single on Thursday. Robert SaboSeth Lugo handled the Phillies in the top of the eighth, striking out three, with an intentional walk to Bryce Harper sandwiched in between. Miguel Castro and Drew Smith combined to fire two scoreless innings in relief before Lugo.
The Mets were in trouble entering the seventh, trailing 1-0 and facing their last ups, but pitcher Jose Alvarado’s throwing error on a routine comebacker to begin the inning provided an opening, and Francisco Lindor made it hurt. Lindor’s two-out RBI single brought in Luis Guillorme, who had raced to second on Alvarado’s throwing error.
The Mets’ previous big chance came in the sixth, when Smith walked against Alvarado to load the bases. But the lefty Alvarado struck out James McCann before retiring Kevin Pillar to preserve the Phillies’ lead. Lindor was hit by a pitch, and Alonso walked against Nola in the inning to begin the rally.
Nola allowed two hits over 5 ²/₃ shutout innings with one walk, two hit batters and 12 strikeouts.
Michael Conforto whiffed on a 1-2 knuckle curve for the first out of the fourth inning, giving Nola his 10th straight strikeout, matching the major league record Seaver set while pitching for the Mets against the Padres on April 22, 1970. Alonso prevented Nola from setting the record, blooping a double to right field that elicited a roar of relief from the crowd.
Francisco Lindor’s RBI single in the ninth tied the game for the Mets. Getty Images“[Players] knew there was a string of strikeouts, and they knew how good [Nola] was, because they kept talking about how his stuff was going strike to ball and it was just disappearing,” Rojas said. “He was able to paint as well. … Everyone was aware after six straight. They started paying more attention, and then he struck out the side again next inning.”
On April 17 at Colorado, Jacob deGrom got as far as nine straight strikeouts before his streak was broken. Tyler Anderson and Max Scherzer are the other active pitchers who have struck out nine straight batters.
Nola gave the Phillies a 1-0 lead with an RBI double against Walker in the fifth inning. Nick Maton walked with two outs before Nola, who entered batting .130, hit a shot into the right-center gap for the run. Taijuan Walker rebounded to retire Odubel Herrera.
Walker allowed one run on three hits over five innings with five strikeouts and one walk. The right-hander, whose ERA dropped to 2.38, was coming off an uninspiring performance at Washington in which he allowed four earned runs over 6 ¹/₃ innings.
“The bullpen did a great job keeping it a one-run game,” Walker said. “We know if we keep the game close, we’re going to have a great chance to win it.”
