Game #86: Mets 4, Giants 3 (16)

Come on, the Mets could only play so many marathons before catching a break. The Giants agreed at about 3:00 in the morning New York time.

Eric Young scored on Brandon Crawford's error in the top of the 16th and Bobby Parnell mercifully closed the door on a comeback as the Mets took a marathon game from the Giants 4-3.

The Good Stuff:

• Down 2-0, John Buck got the scoring going in the top of the 5th with an RBI double. Then in the 6th, the Mets were beneficiaries of some truly dreadful San Francisco defense. The first two miscues were committed by ex-Met Andres Torres, whose misplay of an Eric Young line drive led to a leadoff triple and missed tough catch resulted in Daniel Murphy's game-tying RBI single. David Wright followed with an infield single that Pablo Sandoval couldn't turn the double play on, and Murph went to third on a Marco Scutaro error trying to get out Wright. Ike Davis's double play killed the rally but brought home the go-ahead run to make it 3-2, and if not for the double play another run would've come home on Marlon Byrd's Gregor Blanco-assisted triple.
• After the Giants tied the game on the first two pitches of the 7th, the scoring stopped for almost an entire extra game. The star of the game at this point became the New York bullpen: Carlos Torres (2), David Aardsma (1.2), Scott Rice (0.1), Greg Burke (2), and Josh Edgin (2) stewarded the Mets through eight scoreless innings.
• New York was also beneficiary of some excellent clutch pitching and defense, as the Giants hit just 1-15 with RISP and stranded 18 men on base. And none of those tough outs came through the double play.
• The Mets' bats finally woke up in the top of the 16th, led by Eric Young's one-out single. Young promptly stole second and went to third on Murphy's groundout. After Wright was walked intentionally, Anthony Recker hit into what should have been the third out, but shortstop Brandon Crawford bobbled the ball and had no play. Young scored, and the Mets were back up.
• Bobby Parnell walked Marco Scutaro and allowed a Buster Posey single, threatening to spiral the game back into the Fourth of July's back-and-forth-style affair. But Parnell buckled down to strike out Brandon Belt between Scutaro and Posey, strike out Pablo Sandoval, and force Guillermo Quiroz to ground into the 5-4 force play. Game over, marathon over, Mets win.

The Bad Stuff:

• Harvey Day seemed almost an afterthought after the 13th, but Matt Harvey's outing was spoiled by three bad pitches: a 3-1 1st inning fastball Buster Posey turned into a two-run homer, a fastball Hunter Pence led the 7th off with a triple, and a changeup Brandon Crawfored parlayed into the game-tying single. His final numbers produced a quality start (7 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 6 K, 121 pitches), but based on Harvey's lofty standards we'll categorize it as Bad Stuff.
• New York's bats did their best to make Tim Lincecum look like vintage Big-Time Timmy-Jim, as the former Freak struck out 11 and walked just one in his seven innings.
• The Mets could absolutely not get reigning NL MVP Buster Posey out: Posey went 5-8 with his two-run homer and two doubles.

Final Analysis:
Well, it certainly looks like the Mets will set a record for most innings played in one season. That was a great win, enough said.

MM