SAN FRANCISCO — David Stearns sat in the San Francisco dugout shortly before the Mets opened a three-game series against the Giants, a team battling it out with half the NL for a playoff spot, and assessed his team’s needs ahead of the trade deadline.
The Mets president of baseball operations didn’t shy away from saying that the team needs more length from their starting pitchers, and they need to figure out how to score more runs. An 8-1 win over the Giants on Friday night at Oracle Park was a good start to achieving both of those goals.
It was the fifth straight win for the Mets (60-44), who maintain their NL East lead by a half-game over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Francisco Lindor snapped an eight-game homerless-streak, going 3-for-5 with his 20th of the season and an RBI double, and Brandon Nimmo went 2-for-5 with a double to lead off the game and two RBI in the fourth. Production from the bottom of the lineup gave the top opportunities to make life tough on right-hander Logan Webb, a pitcher who typically gives the Mets trouble.
“I think we were just able to capitalize on mistakes in the zone, but not try and do too much with him,” Nimmo said.
Needing separation with a 3-1 lead, hitters 6-9 all reached base in the fourth inning and three of them scored to give the Mets a 6-1 lead and end Webb’s night prematurely. They took six earned runs off of him on eight hits. Webb (9-8) came into the outing with a 2.13 ERA against the Mets in six games, allowing nine earned runs total.
“When you look at some of the numbers from some of our guys against him, they’re not pretty,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “But in the first at-bat of the game, Nimmo goes the other way like that and drives the ball with authority. I thought we just didn’t miss. We got him up in the zone, and we didn’t miss pitches. We had a really good game plan, and we ended up executing.”
While the Mets didn’t exactly get length from right-hander Clay Holmes, they gave him more runway than usual by letting him throw 104 pitches over five innings, and were able to do so given the 6-1 lead over the Giants (54-50) they had by the fourth inning.
“I think it was just that we had a little bit of wiggle room there up by five,” Mendoza said. “Usually we’ve been playing some tight games where we’ve been one up, or down one, they’re close, and the margin for error is minimum. So I felt like today, we were up five, and you’re trying to give the guy a chance to complete and finish that inning. I’m glad that he was able to do it.”
The Mets took a 2-0 lead off Webb in the first, with Nimmo scoring on a ground ball by Juan Soto and Lindor scoring on a sacrifice fly from Pete Alonso. Holmes was shaky to start in the bottom of the frame, giving up a leadoff single, a double and a run on a ground ball out. He pitched around cleanup hitter Matt Chapman before retiring the next two hitters.
Then he started getting outs on the ground, which is when he’s at his best. San Francisco’s leadoff hitter Heliot Ramos battled him for eight pitches in the third before slicing a single up the center, but Rafael Devers hit into a double play.
In the fifth, Casey Schmitt and Patrick Bailey hit back-to-back singles off Holmes to start the fifth to bring up the top of the order, and bring Holmes to 90 pitches. Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner came out to the mound while the activity increased in the bullpen.
“It was a big part of the game,” Holmes said. “I was lucky enough to have a good lead there offensively. I mean, it was incredible early on, they really jumped on [Webb]. I think it kind of just boiled down to, let’s bear down to make some pitches here.”
Holmes retired the top three in order to get out of the jam and record the win (9-5). He’s often lamented his inability to finish his outings in his first year as a starter, so getting out of that jam with runners on first and second and no outs was huge.
“It really just kind of shuts down the momentum there,” Holmes said. “Kind of just puts the game in a position where the bullpen can come in some clean innings with a lead and, and just as a competitor, you really want to make pitches there.”
In recent starts, Holmes has struggled with efficiency, leading to speculation about whether or not he would end up back in the bullpen. The Mets have mostly dodged the question, and can continue to do so after he held the Giants to only one run.
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