One of the few remaining reasons to watch the Mets is to see how the young players are progressing and whether they can be pieces for the 2018 season. One player getting an unexpected and long audition is Chris Flexen. 

Today was Flexen’s best start in the majors. This time, instead of working hard to get through five innings, Flexen pitched six good innings. 

The Diamondbacks got to him with a first inning rally capped off by a J.D. Martinez RBI single. From there, Flexen settled in, and he would run off four straight scoreless. He did get some help from Wilmer Flores, who made a nice play and a good throw home to nail David Peralta. 

He got more help from Juan Lagares in the fifth. For some reason, A.J. Pollock would test Lagares’ arm on a Martinez line-out. Even with the UCL tear, Lagares has a strong enough arm to nail runners at the plate. It should be noted if Lagares continues playing center this way, and his arm continues being this good, he needs to be in the CF conversation next year. 

With the two plays at the plate, Diamondbacks wouldn’t get to Flexen again until the sixth when Chris Iannetta homered off of him. 

Flexen got out of the inning with a respectable line: six innings, six hits, two runs, two earned, four walks, and five strikeouts. It was his first major league quality start. It was also his third career win. 

After Flexen had allowed the aforementioned first inning homer, the Mets responded in the bottom of the first. 

Brandon Nimmo led off the bottom of the first with a double off Diamondbacks starter Zack Godley. He came home on a Michael Conforto RBI single. The two would combine in the fifth to plate another run. 
There, Nimmo got the rally started with a one out walk, and he moved into scoring position on an Asdrubal Cabrera fielder’s choice. Conforto then delivered the two out RBI single. 

That single gave the Mets a 3-1 lead.  The second run came in the previous inning when Amed Rosario followed a pair of walks to Dominic Smith and Travis d’Arnaud with an RBI single. 

Smith made it 4-2 in the sixth with an absolute bomb to left-center off Jake Barrett. 

The Mets couldn’t quite deliver the knock-out punch that inning. Lagares came up with runners on first and second, and he not into a double play. Nimmo then walked against Jorge De La Rosa, but it was all for naught as Cabrera struck out to end the inning. 
Fortunately, the Mets bullpen, who was been pitching MUCH better of late, didn’t need to help. 

While Jerry Blevins struggled, Paul Sewald came on and retired five straight. AJ Ramos then came on and saved his third game as a Met. 

For tonight at least, the Mets gave their young players a shot. Not only did they play hard, they also won the game. As a Mets fan, you can certainly watch this team learn and improve over the final month of the season. 

Game Notes: With his three homers, Smith has 19 combined homers between the MiLB and MLB leaving him one short of his first ever 20 home run season.