Mets Recap: Nieuwenhuis packs a punch in walkoff

Kathy Wilens | AP via Stamford Advocate

NIEUWY!!

For 8 1/2 innings, it was appearing as if this Mets game was going to go the same dark road.

Quality pitching rotted by lack of hitting and errors.  

Then the bottom of the 9th happened.

Marlon Byrd gave the Mets life with his 11th home run of the year to kick off the inning and to pull the Mets within 2.  A walk to Lucas Duda allowed the Mets to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of John Buck.  His single to right set up 1st and 2nd with nobody out.  Omar Quintanilla moved the runners over with his sac-bunt, setting up two runners in scoring position with 1 man out.

William Perlman | Star-Ledger

Then, Kirk Nieuwenhuis reached the plate.  A recent call-up from the farm club in Las Vegas, Nieuwenhuis came to the plate having hit only one base hit in his last 16 plate appearances.

Hitting a salty .157 this year, Nieuwenhuis took Carlos Marmol's 2nd pitch, a 94 mile per hour fastball, deep to right field, hitting the ball off the Pepsi Porch deck for his first home run this year.

It brought the 30,000 in attendance at Citi Field home happy, as the Mets salvaged the 3rd game of the series against the Chicago Cubs with a 4-3 walk-off victory.

Jeremy Hefner struck out 5 in his 5 innings pitched, surrendering 6 hits that brought 3 runs home, 1 of them earned.  For being the pitcher on record for the 9th, Bobby Parnell wins his 5th game of the season.  For Curtis Marmol, it was his 3rd blown save of the year, and 4th loss of the season.

The Cubs got on the board in the 1st with Alfonso Soriano's single to left that brought Luis Valbuena home.  They added two in the the fifth when two errors helped bring Starlin Castro and Nate Schierholtz home.  

The Mets pack their bags for the start of what will be a long 11 game road trip, starting with a quintet of games at Turner Field in Atlanta.

PITCHING MATCHUPS
Monday - Tim Hudson (4-6, 4.41) vs. Dillon Gee (5-6, 4.84) - 7:10PM

Tuesday - Game #1: Alex Wood (0-0, 3.52) vs. Matt Harvey (5-1, 2.04) - 1:10PM

                Game #2: Paul Maholm (7-5, 3.65) vs. Zack Wheeler (MLB Debut) - 7:10PM

Wednesday - Kris Melden (3-7, 3.09) vs. Shaun Marcum (0-8, 5.43) - 7:10PM

Thursday - Mike Minor (8-2, 2.68) vs. Jon Niese (3-6, 4.15) - 7:10PM

All Games to air on 1230 FOX Sports Radio.  Coverage begins 40 minutes prior to first pitch with Mets Extra with Ed Coleman.