Last Monday, the New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants staged a real classic at Oracle Park, the best game of the current season.
It was a battle of alternatives, with home runs, the lead changing hands on more than one occasion, both teams scoring in the last inning, and a dramatic finish.
The Giants took advantage of Chris Bassitt’s worst start of the season — one of the most ineffective of his career — to take what looked like a comfortable lead.
Joc Pederson hit the first of three homers with a teammate in circulation in the second and Tommy LaStella followed suit with two on board in the third to make it 6-1 for the hosts after three innings.
But if the Mets have shown anything this season, it’s their ability to erase leads and win “coming from behind.” Spectacular victories against the St. Louis Cardinals (five runs after two outs in the ninth to win 5-2 on April 25) and Philadelphia Phillies (scoring seven runs in the ninth to win 8-7 on April 5). may) prove it. In both “comebacks”, they were visitors.
This time, they repeated history. Trailing 8-4 in the eighth, they went on a seven-round rally against reliever Tyler Rogers. A triple with the bases loaded by Francisco Lindor was the shot that capped the inning and put the Mets ahead 11-8.
But Pederson tagged reliever Drew Smith with his third home run of the game after two outs and two men left to even the score again in the bottom of that inning.
On a night that went out of any scheme, a Brandon Nimmo sacrifice fly made it 12-11 in the first of the ninth in favor of the visitors, who handed the lead to closer Edwin Diaz.
On this occasion, the Puerto Rican could not do the job. With the bases loaded, Pederson drove in his eighth run of the night with a single to level the score and Brandon Crawford hit a single down the opposite sideline that brought in Darin Ruf with the winning run.
After 25 runs and 37 hits between the two teams, the Giants celebrated a dramatic victory in one of the games that we will remember from this 2022 season.