It was a good day to be back at the ballpark for one Michael Conforto. Having missed the final month of the 2017 season with a shoulder injury, followed by months of rehab, Conforto made a triumphant return to the Mets lineup in Washington as New York stunned the D.C. faithful with an 8-2 victory to improve to 5-1 on the young season.
The Mets centerfielder was 1-for-4 with a home run and two runs scored in his first game back in blue and orange.
"The most difficult part was the journey back," Conforto told SNY after the game. "Everything came together today. It took me a little bit to get going, I had some butterflies, almost like a debut."
Added Mickey Callaway on the importance of Conforto's presence, "He adds a whole other level of anxiety for the opposing team. When you back him up with the others we have in the lineup, it creates tremendous anxiety during preparation."It did take a couple of at bats for Conforto to get rolling. He struck out on three pitches in his first at bat against Stephen Strasburg, and grounded into a double-play in his second at bat.
But he didn't let it bother him, mainly because he has teammates willing and able to pick him up.
With the Mets trailing 2-1 in the top of the fourth inning, Yoenis Cespedes crushed a Strasburg fastball over the left field wall for the tying home run. An inning later it was time for Conforto to break loose.
With Kevin Pawlecki on second, Conforto slapped a pitch to left that just cleared the wall, landing in the flower pots that adorn the top of the left field wall near the bleachers. Initial ruling was that Conforto doubled, but review proved the ball had gone over the fence. Home run. It was Conforto's first of the year, and his first two RBIs to boot. If Conforto needed time to exhale, he had a chance to do so when he rounded third and slapped hands with Third Base Coach Glenn Sherlock.
On the hill, the Mets were led by a stellar performance by Jacob deGrom, who twirled six innings of four hit baseball against one of the top scoring teams in the sport. deGrom held Washington to only two runs, one earned, as he kept the Nationals guessing all day.
Perhaps deGrom's best moment came in the bottom of the sixth inning when he was clearly running out of gas. First he gave up a single to Brian Goodwin on a slider that hung up in the zone on 3-2. Then he walked both Anthony Rendon and Bryce Harper on eight consecutive balls to load the bases. With Robert Gsellman warming up in the pen, it was clear that deGrom was one bad pitch away from having his day end in infamy.
With his world burning around him, deGrom refocused and found the zone again. He jammed Ryan Zimmerman on a curveball to shallow right, preventing Goodwin from tagging up and scoring. Next, he used a mix of off-speed stuff and a rising fastball to confuse Howie Kendrick into a hard liner to Jose Reyes for out number two.
Finally, deGrom went backdoor on Trea Turner with a nasty four-seam fastball for strike three to get out of an seemingly impossible jam.
A half inning later, Jay Bruce delivered the knock out blow when he just got enough of a Brandon Kintzler sinker on 3 and 2 to deposit it into the right-center field seats for a grand slam home run. A game that once saw the Mets clinging to a 4-2 lead was now 8-2. Psychologically, the game was over and there was still three full innings to play.
It is an understatement to say this win for the Mets is huge, because it is. The Nationals were 13-6 against the Mets last year and have owned the Amazins for the better part of the past six years. If the Mets are going to be a serious player in the National League, getting victories against the Nationals has to happen. While there are two more games in this series, Thursday's win was a great step in the right direction.
Next Game: Mets @ Nationals, Saturday, April 7 at 1:00 on SNY. There is a strong chance for heavy rains in the D.C. area on Saturday.
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