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Saturday was a long, slow haul. After a pitchers’ duel between the Giants and New York Mets saw the score knotted at 1-1 in the 11th inning, it took a sacrifice fly for the Mets to pick up their second run of the day and beat the Giants 2-1.
After Wilmer Flores doubled off Hunter Strickland to lead off the 11th and moved to second on a grounder from Jay Bruce, Todd Frazier stepped up. He shot a ball to deep left field, where Hunter Pence’s throw came in way offline and Flores scored the winning run easily.
Most of the game was devoid of offense. Evan Longoria put the Giants on the board in the fourth inning with a solo shot to left field. His effort was an isolated one, with the next three hitters all striking out swinging. Steven Matz also accomplished an even rarer version of that feat in the second inning, striking out Brandon Belt, Hunter Pence and Alen Hanson looking for a 1-2-3 inning.
By the end of the day, Belt picked up a golden sombrero with four strikeouts, Hanson had three strikeouts, and both Hunter Pence and Nick Hundley had two each.
In their defense, Matz was dealing for the Mets, with Longoria’s home run one of the few blemishes on his day. In total, he struck out a career-high 11 batters in seven innings of one-run work. The Giants’ 4-7 hitters in Hundley, Belt, Pence and Hanson struck out a combined nine times against Matz. As a team, the Giants struck out 16 times against the Mets.
On the Giants’ side, Derek Holland was fantastic again, pitching six innings of four-hit, one-run baseball.
The Mets tied the game in the fifth, thanks to a double deep off the wall in right-center field from Tomas Nido, who stepped to the plate batting .140. Brandon Nimmo, who runs full-speed on every single play, made it home easily from first base to tie the game at 1-1. The Giants (68-69) failed to respond offensively and dropped back under .500.