J.D. Martinez may singlehandedly be saving the Mets from a summer selloff.
One night after a walk-off home run led the Mets over the Miami Marlins, the designated hitter’s two-run double helped the Mets defeat the San Diego Padres 2-1 on Friday night at Citi Field. The slugger powered the Amazins’ past the Padres with an opposite-field flare off knuckleballer Matt Waldron in the second inning. It was the timely hitting the Mets needed in the first game of a three-game set.
“No one is thinking anything about the Mets,” Martinez said. “Every kind of just, you know, has us written off. So there’s no pressure. Let’s just go out and have fun. We win, we win. If we lose, we lose.”
With closer Edwin Diaz pitching like his old self once again, the Mets have a better chance of winning.
Diaz was the ninth-inning hero for the second night in a row. The struggles of April and May are mostly behind him and with his shoulder now healthy, his fastball velocity is back, as well as the movement and life on the pitch.
Diaz stranded a runner at third base to save the game, one night after picking up a win.
“I thought that was a pretty complete game,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “And obviously, with Diaz getting the last three outs — and particularly with the runner at third base — is huge for us.”
Waldron flummoxed the Mets for seven innings. He mixed in a few low-90s fastballs as well as sinkers and sliders, showcasing a variety of speeds in a variety of situations. He faced traffic only once, with Martinez’s hit being one of only three allowed.
Jeff McNeil walked with one out in the third. After Francisco Lindor missed a home run by mere inches, Brandon Nimmo singled to right to keep the inning going and bring up Martinez. With two on and two out, Martinez got a 91 MPH fastball and looped it into right field for a double.
McNeil and Nimmo scored to put the Mets up 2-0.
Waldron (4-6) didn’t give the Mets much more to work with after that, limiting them to two earned runs on three hits, walking two, striking out two and hitting two batters.
Left-hander Sean Manaea (4-3) went five innings in the win, limiting San Diego to one earned run on four hits. The one run came off the bat of center fielder Jackson Merrill in the fifth inning, his sixth homer of the season. Tyrone Taylor leapt up the wall to try to grab it but the ball bounced right above him at the orange line, cutting the Mets’ lead in half.
Manaea faced only one hitter after that, having already thrown 87 pitches when he entered the sixth inning, giving up a leadoff single to Luis Arraez. The Mets went to right-hander Adam Ottavino much earlier than usual, but with Diaz back, the Mets can use their high-leverage relievers in unconventional ways.
“When we got it going with Diaz ready to go in the ninth inning, it’s a different game,” Mendoza said. “You can start mixing and matching a lot earlier, if needed. And today was one of those nights.”
Francisco Alvarez and McNeil helped out Ottavino by catching Arraez stealing, with McNeil belly-flopping to tag the runner after he slid past the base. Ottavino then retired Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jurickson Profar to get out of the inning.
After getting the first two outs in the seventh, the Mets went to left-hander Jake Diekman to get left-handed Jake Cronenworth out. Diekman hit him and then walked Ha-Seong Kim to put two on with two out.
Merrill then hit one deep to center field, but Nimmo tracked it down in the left field corner for the third out.
Right-hander Sean Reid-Foley pitched a perfect eighth to set up the save for Diaz.
In typical, 2024 Diaz fashion, he made it interesting. Profar led off with a single and pinch-runner Jose Azocar stole second base. Azocar made it to third base on a ground ball by Donovan Solano, with McNeil preventing the tying run from scoring by making a clutch sliding stop.
“He didn’t hit it that hard, but I thought it was a base hit,” Diaz said. “As soon as I saw McNeil diving and pick it up, I knew it was a big, big out for us. After that, I say to myself, ‘We got the game. Let’s win the game.'”
Still, he reached 100 MPH on the gun. Diaz trusted his pitches and the sequencing of Alvarez. With his shoulder healthy again, Diaz is feeling better and throwing harder than he has all season.
“My velocity is coming way easier,” Diaz said. “Yesterday, my first two pitches I was trying to throw hard, and I pulled it. I was feeling so good, I just told myself, ‘Just throw it to the catcher,’ and the velo was there.”
Diaz struck out Cronenworth to convert his sixth save and secure the win, the third straight for the Mets (31-37) and their seventh in their last nine tries.
The series with San Diego (37-36) continues Saturday at 4:10 p.m.
