Four pitches into the game disaster struck. Whit Merrifield lined a ball off Bartolo Colon‘s hand knocking him out of the game. The Mets are beginning a stretch of 20 games without a day off, and they were left scrambling to fill in 8.2 innings tonight. 

Hansel Robles stepped up big time. He would pitch a career high 3.2 innings, and he throw a career high 65 pitches. He was terrific. It started with him combining with Travis d’Arnaud for a strike em out, throw em out double play to end the first.  The only run he surrendered was in the fifth, when he was stretched beyond his limits. He might’ve gotten out of the game if Wilmer Flores didn’t pull a Roger Dorn. 

Erik Goeddel came in and got out the jam. He would pitch two scoreless innings.  Jerry Blevins added a scoreless seventh stretching his scoreless inning streak to a career high 12 innings (over 20 appearances). Addison Reed set the Royals down 1-2-3 in the eighth, and Jeurys Familia would not blow the save against the Royals. 

The Mets were able to eke out a victory using the long ball. In the first, Asdrubal Cabrera hit a homer, and it was up to Rene Rivera to take off his helmet:

Of course, the other homer came from Yoenis Cespedes who hit it out to straight center. Cespedes would also add in a move over the shoulder catch to end the sixth. 

As the Mets hit two homers, they won the game. In true Mets fashion, they beat the reigning World Series Champions after getting swept by the worst baseball team assembled since maybe the 1962 Mets. 

It was made possible largely because of a terrific Robles performance. He got a well earned win. 

Game Notes: X-rays on Colon’s hand were negative. Former Met Dillon Gee relieved Royals’ starter Ian Kennedy in the fifth, and he shockingly entered to boos. He pitched a scoreless inning. In his first game back from the DL, d’Arnaud would go 0-3.