© Noah K. Murray | USA Today
After escaping with an odd, one-run win last night, the Giants wasted a stellar comeback pitching performance from Chris Stratton and lost to the New York Mets 6-3 Tuesday night.
The score was knotted at 2-2 in the eighth inning when reliever Tony Watson had his worst outing of the season. Watson relinquished a leadoff triple to Jose Reyes, but looked poised to get out of the inning unharmed after retiring his next two batters.
Then a red-hot Jeff McNeil (4-for-4) came to bat and spoiled Watson’s hope of escape, hitting a one-run double to give the Mets a 3-2 lead. Wilmer Flores was intentionally walked next to give the Giants a force out at every base but home, leaving Michael Conforto to bat with two outs and two men on. With the first pitch of the at-bat, Conforto hit a three-run opposite-field home run, giving the Mets a four-run lead.
This followed an outing from Stratton which had Ryan Vogelsong’s fingerprints all over it. While Vogelsong hasn’t pitched for the Giants in three years, he worked with the struggling Stratton while he was with the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats.
In Stratton’s previous four outings with the Giants, he had a 14.14 ERA. His last start was August 3 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, when he allowed six runs in three innings.
Tonight Stratton broke his duck, pitching six shutout innings until a tough seventh. Through his first six innings, he failed to walk a single batter and allowed just three hits. When the seventh came, he unraveled, allowing a single and double to leadoff the inning, followed by a sacrifice fly and game-tying single from ex-Giant Austin Jackson.
Stratton’s effort was matched by a similar one from Steven Matz, who had had a 13.17 ERA in his previous four outings. After Evan Longoria teed off on Matz for a two-run home run in the first inning, Matz regained control and pitched four shutout innings, at one point retiring 12-straight Giants batters.
The only other Giants run came in the ninth, when Austin Slater hit a ball that brushed off the tip of Jose Bautista’s glove in right field, scoring Longoria.
The loss drops the Giants to 62-65.