For the Mets — and their rabid fans who made themselves heard at Coors Field Friday night — it was another chapter of a dream season.
For the Rockies, it was another hard-fought loss in a season full of defeats.
The Mets prevailed, 4-2, on Francisco Lindor’s unlikely, pinch-hit, two-out double off Colorado rookie closer Zach Agnos in the ninth. Mets fans, who made up a good portion of the announced crowd of 34,890, chanted “MVP! MVP!” as Lindor stood on second base.
Lindor, who hammered the Rockies during the Mets’ sweep in Queens last weekend, suffered a broken pinky toe on his right foot on Wednesday when he was hit by an 89 mph slider by the Dodgers’ Tony Gonsolin. The Mets debated putting Lindor on the injured list, but he convinced them not to.
“The trainers did a fantastic job getting me prepared,” Lindor said. “In the fifth and sixth innings, they asked if I was ready, and I said ‘Yeah.’ I just wanted to play.”
Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer tipped his cap to Lindor.
“Francisco Lindor is one of the great players in the game,” Scheffer said. “He’s a guy you never count out. He’s just one of the best. You never want to see him in the batter’s box.”
After four saves since being installed as the closer, Agnos blew the first save of his career.
“I was just thinking about executing, that’s all I’m focused on, whoever is the batter, whoever I’m facing,” said Agnos, who threw a 1-0 cutter to Lindor. “When I throw my pitch, I should be able to get anybody out, but he put a good swing on a good pitch. … It was off the plate and a little bit in.”
The Mets (40-24) beat the Rockies for the sixth straight time. Colorado saw its three-game winning streak end, and they slid to 12-51, continuing their run at baseball’s worst record of the modern era. The Rockies’ 51 losses through their first 63 games are tied with the 1932 Boston Red Sox for the most since 1901.
New York took a 2-1 lead in the seventh on Pete Alonso’s two-run double off Tyler Kinley. Starling Marte and Juan Soto reached on back-to-back singles, and Kinley had Alonso in an 0-2 hole before Alonso blasted his double to left-center.
The Rockies counter-punched in the bottom of the frame. Pinch-hitter Sam Hilliard tripled off the right-field wall and scored on Mickey Moniak’s single to right. Moniak’s solo homer off Mets starter Kodai Senga in the third had put Colorado ahead 1-0.
The game between the division-leading Mets and the cellar-dwelling Rockies was packed with drama.
In the Rockies’ eighth, Jordan Beck led off with a single up the middle off reliever Ryne Stanek, and Thairo Estrada followed with a double off the right-field wall. Third-base coach Andy Gonzalez started to wave Beck around third, but held Beck up at the last moment. It didn’t seem to matter when Hunter Goodman walked to load the bases.
But then the baseball gods smiled on the Mets. Colorado’s Ryan McMahon hit a line drive — right at third baseman Brett Baty, who doubled up Beck for the double play. Stanek struck out the slumping Brenton Doyle to end the threat. The Rockies finished the game 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position.
Asked about Gonzalez’s decision not to send Beck, Schaeffer backed up his third-base coach.
“Third base coach is a very, very difficult job, and I will never, ever, second-guess my third base coach,” said Schaeffer, who served as Colorado’s third base coach before he took over as manager last month when Bud Black was fired. “You are on an island. (Gonzalez) saw what he saw. I trust him.”
The sixth inning was especially titillating. Rockies right-hander Antonio Senzatela opened the inning by walking Alonso and Jeff McNeil. Schaeffer pulled Senzatela and called for right-hander Jake Bird, who’s been one of baseball’s best relievers this season.
But Bird put himself in a no-outs, baseloaded jam when he hit Tyrone Taylor. No problem for Bird, who struck out Brett Baty, Francisco Alvarez and Ronny Mauricio in succession and then strutted off the mound pumping his fist. Bird lowered his ERA to 1.49.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I know when I was just watching and not pitching, it felt a little bit like a playoff game tonight,” Bird said. “That’s a good team, and we competed with them really well to the point where you could see how fired up they were getting.”
In the fifth, Colorado shortstop Ryan Ritter, making his big-league debut, ripped a standup, leadoff triple off Senga into the gap in left-center. He’s the first Rockies player in franchise history to hit a triple in his first career game.
But Ritter was then erased at home plate, attempting to score from third on Moniak’s grounder to Alonso at first. Ritter was initially called safe after his headfirst slide, but a video review showed that Mets Alverez slapped a tag on Ritter just before Ritter touched the plate.
Lefty Ryan Rolison worked as the “opener” for the Rockies, supplanting Senzatela for the first inning.
There were good reasons why Schaeffer relieved Senzatela of his first-inning duties. In his first 12 starts this season, the right-hander had a first-inning ERA of 12.00, with a .483 (29 for 60) batting average against. Included in the onslaught were two home runs, three doubles and a triple.
But Senzatela delivered a quality “start,” pitching four scoreless innings, giving up three hits, walking four and striking out two.
Rolison was spot on in his spot duty. He gave up a two-out single to the dangerous Juan Soto but got the equally dangerous Pete Alonso to ground out to short to end the inning.
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