Mets fall to Fish in extras, 2-0, spoiling Taijuan Walker’s seven shutout innings
This was a good old-fashioned pitching duel, but that’s nothing new for Taijuan Walker.
A couple of weeks after dueling against Astros right-hander Justin Verlander, Walker went toe-to-toe with one of the best starting pitchers in the game right now in Sandy Alcantara.
Walker, in another outstanding performance, dazzled across seven shutout innings in the Mets’ 2-0 loss to the Marlins in extra innings on Sunday at Citi Field. The Mets right-hander has built a strong case for his second-consecutive All-Star appearance. Walker’s season ERA dropped to 2.63 after his seven strikeouts and only three hits allowed in a 99-pitch affair against the Fish.
“I just have confidence in all my pitches right now,” Walker said.
On the other side, Alcantara limited the Mets to six hits – and Luis Guillorme had three of them. Guillorme, batting eighth and playing second base, collected a single in all three at-bats against Alcantara, who owns a Jacob deGrom-like 1.73 ERA following his shutout outing against the Mets. Guillorme and Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto are the only two players in MLB to record three-hit games against Alcantara so far this season.
“I faced [Alcantara] in Miami and I even faced Verlander too,” Walker said. “Those are fun starts. Those are fun games. You want to go out there and be just a little bit better.”
The Marlins finally broke the scoreless game in the 10th inning on an error by the Mets catcher. Billy Hamilton, the free runner on second, stole third base and Tomas Nido airmailed the throw into left field. Hamilton easily scored the go-ahead run on Nido’s error. Tommy Hunter, pitching the top of the 10th, allowed one more run on three hits before the inning was over.
The Mets (53-33) failed to make up the two-run difference in the bottom of the 10th. Brandon Nimmo came about an inch shy of tying the game on a two-run home run to right field, but the ball died just in front of the fence for an out. The Mets dropped two out of four to their division rivals to split the series at Citi Field. The Amazin’s will open a critical three-game series against the Braves behind Max Scherzer on Monday.
“In order to compete with a starter like that, you gotta get a good start from your starter,” Buck Showalter said. “We certainly did. We matched him. Tai has been solid for us.”
Following the dominating performances from both starting pitchers, Showalter went to Edwin Diaz in a scoreless ninth inning.
Diaz, making his third consecutive relief appearance in a non-save situation, was one again otherworldly. The Mets closer made facing the top of Miami’s order look easy, retiring the side one just seven pitches including two strikeouts. Diaz has struck out 70 of the 139 batters he’s faced – a jaw-dropping rate of more than half the batters he’s faced this season. He also has a 1.78 ERA in 36 relief appearances.
