Mets pitching coach Jeremy Hefner hustled out to the mound Saturday night after Edwin Diaz had issued a wild pitch and a leadoff walk to start the 10th inning.
With runners on the corners and no outs — because of MLB’s extra-inning ghost-runner rule — there’s not much that even needs to be said to your closer in that situation besides stressing the importance of a couple of strikeouts to maintain the tie score.
Diaz fanned the next two batters — including red-hot Joey Votto — before getting a game-ending fly ball to earn the victory in the Mets’ 5-4 comeback win over the Reds, his fifth straight successful outing since a three-game hiccup earlier this month.
“He was lights-out. I know he walked [Jesse] Winker there, but he found it and he bounced back,” Mets manager Luis Rojas said after the game. “I think he’s done a really good job in the last week or so with his command, throwing strikes with his fastball, throwing strikes with his slider. … The slider’s almost got a cutter action right now.
“He’s worked really hard on that pitch with Jeremy Hefner, but he was lights out. He was really tough to hit. That’s the guy for a situation like that. Runner on second and no out, Diaz is a strikeout pitcher. He can do exactly what he did, two strikeouts and then a fly-out to center. So, outstanding. He gave us a chance to win there.”
After uncorking the wild pitch to advance ghost runner Jonathan India to third and the walk to Winker, Diaz whiffed No. 3 hitter Kyle Farmer on an 0-2 slider for the first out. He also struck out Votto, who had homered in his previous seven games, on a 99-mph four-seam fastball before getting Aristedes Aquino to sky to center to squelch the threat and set up Brandon Drury’s game-winning single in the bottom of the inning.
“At the beginning … he wasn’t controlling his fastball, but once he got on top of it, he had control of it,” said shortstop Javier Baez, who belted a two-run homer in his Mets debut. “He’s been in this situation [before] with men on third and no outs and got out of it. That’s the experience that he has. He’s been through that and keeps learning.”
The scoreless outing marked Diaz’s fifth straight after he’d blown three consecutive save opportunities bridging the All-Star break. He’d been rocked for seven earned runs in three combined innings in that stretch, including a walk-off grand slam by Pittsburgh’s Jacob Stallings on July 17