Game #123: Mets 6, Twins 1

This broom's been ready for a long, long time.

(NYDailyNews.com)

Marlon Byrd's 20th home run of the season put an exclamation point on the scoring, and Dillon Gee's dominant outing gave the Mets a 6-1 makeup win over the Twins to complete a sweep four months in the making.

The Good Stuff:

• Dillon Gee continued his masterful summer stretch by allowing a single unearned run on six hits in 7.2 innings, walking one and striking out nine Minnesotans on 99 pitches.
• New York got on the board early and (eventually) often, scoring one in the 1st (Andrew Brown's single) and one in the 2nd (Eric Young's single). They put up a crooked number in the 4th on RBI singles by Omar Quintanilla and Daniel Murphy.
• A fifth run came in on Wilmer Flores's RBI single in the 7th (his 11th RBI in 11 career games), and Marlon Byrd capped it with a solo home run in the 9th that would have gone all the way to Fargo if not for landing in the second deck. It was Byrd's 20th blast of the season, tying his career high from Texas in 2009.
• The Mets' 14 hits were evenly distributed, as seven players each had two dingers.
• Scott Rice took three pitches to retire the final man of the 8th inning and Scott Atchison led the Mets through the 9th to secure the victory.

The Bad Stuff:

• Despite scoring four runs in the first four innings, New York realistically could have had six or seven on the board: Wilmer Flores grounded into a bases-loaded double play in the 1st inning, while Omar Quintanilla was thrown out at third on Young's hit in the 2nd, and Young hit a line drive that Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe parlayed into a brilliant unassisted double play.
• Ike Davis and Travis d'Arnaud were the only New York starters held without a hit, although each got on base with a walk apiece. D'Arnaud went 0-3 with two strikeouts in pursuit of his first major league hit.

Final Analysis:
It's been a long wait to finish up this series that started in April but was pushed back due to...well, Minnesota April. But the finish was just as sweet as the start (John Buck's RBI explosion in the first game and Matt Harvey's no-hit bid in the second), as Dillon Gee yet again upgraded his resume for a long-term job in the Mets rotation. He may be overshadowed by New York's bigger names, but Dillon has Met fans saying "Gee whiz," and not in an ironic way.

MM

P.S. Let's not forget Juan Lagares's Gold Glove caliber catch in the 2nd inning. Man, that guy can fly.

(NYDailyNews.com)