Blake Snell is usually really good in the post-season. On Saturday night he was anything but good. Of course, neither was anyone else on the Padres pitching staff (with the exception of Steven Wilson) and now we have a winner-take-all situation on Sunday.
The Mets beat the Padres 7-2 in Game 2 of their best-of-3 NL Wild Card series at Citi Field, thanks in large part to the nine walks (and one hit batter) the Friars staff issued.
Snell had all kinds of trouble finding the plate. He walked six batters and worked a ton more 3-ball counts before getting pulled after just 3.1 innings. He needed 90 pitches to get 10 outs and even some of those were hit awfully hard right at fielders.
The trouble started in the 1st inning when Francisco Lindor launched a solo home run to left field off Snell to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. However, give the Padres offense credit for doing some damage against one of the best pitchers on earth.
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Jacob deGrom was throwing 102-MPH fastballs most of the night but in the 3rd inning Trent Grisham continued his resurrection with another home run, his 2nd of the playoffs, this time an opposite field shot to tie it 1-1.
In the 4th Snell's lack of control hurt him again. He walked the first two batters of the inning and Brandon Nimmo lined a single to left field to bring one of them home with a 2-1 lead. That's when manager Bob Melvin went to his bullpen. Nick Martinez came in and got out of the inning on just three pitches to keep it from getting completely out of hand.
Amazingly the Padres offense bailed out their starter with another run in the top of the 5th. Jurickson Profar singled down the first base line to bring home Grisham (who drew a walk from deGrom to lead off) and tie it up 2-2. That tie did not last long. Pete Alonso hit the first pitch he saw from Martinez out of the yard to put the Mets on top 3-2.
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In the 7th inning things got completely out of hand. Adrian Morejon came on and gave up a leadoff single to Lindor. Then he walked Alonso and Mark Canha, both on the 10th pitch of their at-bats. Clearly laboring, Melvin left the lefty in to face left-handed hitting Jeff McNeil. It was one hitter too many. McNeil laced a 2-run double to right-centerfield and New York was up 5-2. Pierce Johnson came in to try and clean up Morejon's mess.
He gave up an RBI single to Eduardo Escobar and a sac fly to Daniel Vogelbach to make it 7-2 and we should give a shoutout to Steven Wilson for throwing a perfect 8th inning with two punchouts in his post-season debut. His ability to keep it there actually, inexplicably, allowed the tying run to come to the plate.
Adam Ottavino had control issues of his own. He walked three, including Manny Machado with the bases loaded to make it 7-3 and bring up Josh Bell. But, Seth Lugo got him to ground out to end it.
So, it all comes down to Sunday. San Diego's own Joe Musgrove takes the mound against Chris Bassitt. Winner goes to the National League Division Series in Los Angeles. Loser goes home until pitchers and catchers report in 2023.
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