After a difficult stretch, Mets reach 80 wins

NEW YORK — The past two weeks represented one of the toughest stretches of the Mets’ schedule this season — a 13-game stretch against the Phillies, Braves and Yankees in which the Queens ninth went 6-7. .

On Thursday night, the Mets finally got some kind of respite, in what was the first of a 23-game stretch in which they will play 20 games against teams under .500.

Jacob deGrom put up six solid innings in the 3-1 win over the Rockies at Citi Field and Pete Alonso hit his 31st home run of the season in the third inning, in which the Mets scored three runs to become the third major league team to reach 80 wins in 2022.

“I think it’s important to win every game, whether you’re facing the Yankees or the Rockies or the Phillies. It doesn’t matter,” Alonso said. “We have to do our duty every day, execute a plan, come and play as a team. I think we did a good job tonight in that regard.”

For his part, deGrom limited the Rockies to one run on three hits and struck out nine batters to improve to 3-1 with a 2.15 ERA in five starts since making his season debut Aug. 2.

The right-hander retired the first 13 batters he faced before allowing two hits in the fifth inning, but deGrom — who was pitching for the first time in a week — used his slider to get out of trouble. deGrom’s only error was the home run he gave up to Ryan McMahon in the sixth inning.

The Mets have three more games left against the Rockies this weekend, and then they will play a three-game series against the Dodgers at Citi Field. After that, they’ll have 16 straight games against the Nationals, Pirates, Marlins and Cubs, all of whom are under .500.

For his part, manager Buck Showalter noted that, in a sense, games against weak teams can be more stressful.

“Sometimes I think in these games there’s just as much, if not more, pressure,” Showalter said. “I think people are not aware of the pressure that there is every night when the expectations are (high). They have created expectations with the way they have played players and I am proud of them”.

We wish to thank the writer of this post for this remarkable content

After a difficult stretch, Mets reach 80 wins