De Aza Saves the Mets Season – Yes, that De Aza

As if the Cardinals weren’t evil enough, they sent Adam Wainwright of all people to the mound to end the Mets season. Fortunately for the Mets, they had the better right-handed with a terrific curveball on the mound. 

That’s right. In the most important game of the season, the 2011 34th round draft pick Seth Lugo took to the mound, and once again he was terrific. His final line was 5.0 innings, two hits, no runs, none earned, three walks, and five strikeouts. He only lasted five innings as he left the game with a cramp in what was a hot and humid day. 

Lugo was never supposed to be in this spot, but there he is. Better yet, much like Jacob deGrom in 2014, he’s taken advantage of an unexpected opportunity. 

The Mets offense took advantage of a struggling Wainwright and a bad Cardinals defense. 

In the fourth, with the Mets already up 1-0, Curtis Granderson would reach on a Jhonny Peralta error. He’d go to third on a Wilmer Flores double. Both would then score on an Alejandro De Aza RBI single expanding the Mets lead to 3-0. Flores, De Aza, and the Cardinals defense would conspire again in the fifth to blow the game open. 

The Mets had Yoenis Cespedes and James Loney on with two out, and Wainwright seemingly induced Flores to hit an inning ending ground out. Instead, second baseman Greg Garcia booted it allowing Flores to reach and Cespedes to score. De Aza would then really make the Cardinals pay:

Just like that it was 7-0 Mets. 

Wainwright’s final line was five innings, nine hits, seven runs, two earned, two walks and three strikeouts. 

The story of the night, aside from Lugo, was Flores and De Aza. Flores was the surprise starter with a right-handed on the mound and Neil Walker on paternity leave. De Aza got the start with Jay Bruce dealing with some type of leg injury. 
Flores would go 2-4 with three runs and sac fly RBI. De Aza would go 2-4 with two runs, five RBI, one walk, and a homer. 

De Aza would also rob Matt Carpenter of a homer on the Cardinals first at bat of the game. 

  
The Mets offense just exploded in the night. Everyone but Jose Reyes, Cespedes, and Granderson got at least two hits. However, even they reached base two times a piece. Reyes and Cespedes also drew a walk, and Granderson reached on the error. 

The 10 runs the Mets put up made up for some ugly bullpen work. Jim Henderson, Josh Smoker, and Sean Gilmartin combined to allow six earned runs. 

Fortunately, the Mets offense put up 10 runs to win the game 10-6. With that, the Mets took two out of three from the Cardinals bringing them back to 3.5 games behind them for the second Wild Card. It also allowed Lugo to earn his first major league win. 

Game Notes: Loney hit cleanup and went 3-5 with three runs snapping his August cold streak. Asdrubal Cabrera was 2-5 with an RBI double. Rene Rivera was 2-4 with two RBI, a double, and a walk. His two RBI came on a single that went to the wall. 

Pennant Race:  The Pirates are tied with the Brewers 2-2 in the eighth. The Nationals beat the Orioles 4-0. The Marlins lost to the Royals 5-2. 

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