MLB Rankings: Greatest Hits in Week-9
9. Adam Jones, 38 percent
In Arizona, the visiting Mets carried a 5-1 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning. Mets ace Jacob deGrom had plainly won his personal duel with D-Backs ace Zack Greinke, allowing just that single run and five hits over 6.2 innings. The Mets had gotten to Greinke for four runs and seven hits in just the four innings he lasted.
At that point, Arizona’s chances of winning the game were measured in single digits.
That all changed, however, against Jeurys Familia, who had gotten the final out in relief of deGrom in the seventh. Pinch hitter Tim Locastro began the eight by taking a Familia pitch off his body, and Jarrod Dyson followed with a base hit. Ketel Marte’s hit sent Locastro across, and Eduardo Escobar’s sacrifice fly to left scored Dyson.
The Diamondbacks still trailed by two, but with nobody out the next batter, Jones represented the tying run. Mets manager Mickey Callaway brought in Robert Gsellman, with an ERA around 3.75, to face Jones, one of four D-Backs with a double-digit home run count.
Jones took a first-pitch strike, then smashed the next fastball he saw over the left field wall for that game-tying home run.
Statistically, the hit only improved Arizona’s chances of winning from 18 percent to 56 percent, but emotionally it was a different calculation. The game remained tie into extra innings, but in the 11th Locastro’s base hit scored Kevin Cron, who had doubled to open the inning, with the winning run.