The week’s heroes: Yelich, Toro and Kurt Suzuki
By Bill Felber
1 Kurt Suzuki, 69 percent
Assuming the New York Mets fail to reach the playoffs, their fans will look back on this game as the decisive blow.
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The Mets scored five runs in the top of the ninth inning to build a 10-4 lead with three outs to get. When the bottom of the ninth inning began, the odds of a Washington comeback win were less than 1 percent.
The Mets asked Paul Sewald to get what should have been those perfunctory three outs, only to see their baseball world collapse around them.
Victor Robles opened the inning with a ground single, and one out later Trea Turner doubled the first run home. After Asdrubel Cabrera singled Turner to th8ird, Anthony Rendon also singled to make the score 10-6.
That was enough for Mets manager Mickey Callaway, who summoned Luis Avilan to replace Sewald. He surrendered a ground single to Juan Soto that loaded the bases and brought the tying run to the plate.
At that point, the odds of a Nats win still barely broke out of single digits. But after Edwin Diaz replaced Avilan, Ryan Zimmerman improved those odds measurably with a line double to right that sent Cabrera and Rendon across. Still with just one out, the score was 10-8 and Suzuki came up representing a highly unlikely winning run.
Longest homers of the past week. dark. Next
He worked the count to 3-2, then picked on a Diaz offering and sent it in to the seats down the left field line for a stunning game winner. It was only the second time this season that a team walked off victoriously after entering the ninth inning with a less than 1 percent chance at victory.