Dealing with a banged-up lineup, the Mets relied on their bullpen in a gritty 4-3 victory at Truist Park on Tuesday night. Tomás Nido was the unlikely hero, delivering a solo homer in the top of the ninth inning to clinch the series victory with New York’s second straight win against Atlanta.
With two outs and no one on in the ninth, Nido hit a towering fly ball into the left-field seats to break the 3-3 tie and give the Mets the lead. Over the past two games Nido has come up big for New York, and with Tuesday’s late-game heroics he will continue to challenge starter James McCann for more playing time behind the plate.
In his second start of the season serving as an “opener,” reliever Miguel Castro took the mound and set the pace with an 11-pitch first inning to retire the side. That set the stage for an effective bullpen game, in which seven relievers held the Braves to three runs on five hits — two of which were solo home runs.
The Mets have relied on their bullpen through much of the year due to several injuries to starting pitchers, including ace Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Carlos Carrasco and more recently Taijuan Walker, who left Monday’s start after three innings with tightness in his left side.
Tommy Hunter relieved Castro, tossing two scoreless innings and notching his first MLB hit in his 14-year career. He was followed by Robert Gsellman (2 IP, 1 R), Trevor May (1 IP, 1 R), Aaron Loup (1 IP, 1 R), Jeurys Familia (1 IP, no runs) and Edwin Díaz, who closed out the game while appearing for the third straight day. Díaz now has seven saves in seven opportunities this year.
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Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to [email protected].