Padres blank the Mets
With a masterful performance on a memorable night in Padres history, Joe Musgrove responded for his native San Diego and tamed the New York Mets.
Musgrove shook off cries of “cheater” from the stands after a bizarre review by the umpires on the mound and led the San Diego Padres into the next round of the playoffs Sunday with a 6-0 victory over the Mets.
He allowed just one hit in covering seven innings to lead his hometown team to a 2-1 win in the best-of-three National League wild-card series.
Trent Grisham contributed a run-scoring single and made a sensational catch in center field. Austin Nola and Dominican Juan Soto added two-run singles.
San Diego advanced to face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the best-of-five game divisional series beginning Tuesday. The Padres assured playing at home in front of their fans in the postseason for the first time in 16 years when they return to Petco Park for Game 3.
“We know. We’d love for the fans to be able to see some postseason games,” manager Bob Melvin said Sunday afternoon. “To some extent, we feel like they’re a part of us.”
With Musgrove dominant in the sixth inning, Mets manager Buck Showalter asked the umpires to check the righty. The rotation velocity on all six of his pitches had gone up. After Showalter took the field, Mexican Alfonso Marquez–chief umpire–rubbed Musgrove’s ears and also poked at his hat and glove.
Musgrove was given the go-ahead to keep pitching.
“I understand,” Musgrove said. “They were in agony, they’re desperate. They were trying to do everything to get me out of the game at that point. It is what it is.”
“It ended up motivating me,” he added.
It was the fifth time the Padres have won a playoff series. They took a first-round matchup against the St. Louis Cardinals in their own fanless stadium after the 2020 season was shortened by the coronavirus pandemic before being swept in the divisional series by the eventual World Series champion Dodgers.
For the Mets, an electrifying season ended meekly at home. The biggest payroll-spending team in the majors won 101 games–the second most in franchise history–but couldn’t hold off the Atlanta Braves in the NL East after leading the division for all but six days.
“Our goal was to win the World Series and we failed,” said Max Scherzer, the ace who joined the Mets’ rotation by signing a three-year, $30 million contract.
Scherzer was roughed up in the Game 1 loss to San Diego and New York won the second with Jacob deGrom on the mound to stay alive. But they could do nothing against Musgrove.
Third starter Chris Bassitt barely lasted four innings, allowing three runs and three hits, plus three costly tickets to batters at the bottom of the offensive order.
In his first playoff start, Musgrove allowed only two runners to plate him – Pete Alonso with a single to open the fifth and then a ticket to Starling Marte to open the seventh.
“He completely dominated us,” said bullpen ace Francisco Lindor.
Venezuelan Robert Suarez and Josh Hader completed the task for the Padres with perfect relief.
For the Padres, Dominican Soto went 4-2 with two RBIs.
For the Mets, Dominican Marte was 3-0. Puerto Ricans Lindor 3-0, Tomás Nido 3-0. Venezuelan Eduardo Escobar 3-0.
