Mets beat Giants 10-6 despite Devers' 5-RBI game
Rafael Devers homered, doubled twice and drove in 5, but the Giants lost 10-6 to the Mets on September 4, falling to 58-84 and already eliminated, 26.5 games back in the NL West.
Devers' 5-RBI day isn't enough in New York
The Mets beat the Giants 10-6 on Friday, September 4, closing out the series in New York. Rafael Devers went 3-for-4 with 2 doubles, a home run and 5 RBI, and the Giants' own account noted it was starting to feel like déjà vu with all these Devers homers — the kind of night that usually decides a game, except the pitching gave back more than he supplied.
Mets6-10The loss left the Giants 2-3 in their last 5. That stretch opened with a 7-3 win over the Braves on August 31, swung through a 10-inning, 5-4 win over the Pirates on September 2 — per Alex Stumpf — and included a 5-2 defeat in Pittsburgh on September 3 that Stumpf noted was the Pirates' third straight series win, their longest streak of the season, before New York took Friday's finale.
Eliminated, and 26.5 games back in the West
The Dodgers lead the NL West at 84-57. San Diego sits second at 74-67, 10.0 games back with an elimination number of 12, and Arizona is right behind at 74-68, 10.5 back with an elimination number of 11. The Giants, at 58-84, sit fourth, 26.5 games back — the E next to their name in the standings means the club has already been eliminated. Only Colorado, at 54-87 and 30.0 back, sits lower, also eliminated.
None of that moves with a week like the one the Giants just played. A 2-3 stretch against Atlanta and Pittsburgh does nothing to a 26.5-game deficit in September — the standings settled the division weeks before Devers' night in New York did anything to change it.
Upcoming
The Giants are in New York this afternoon, with Anthony Molina (2-0, 3.77 ERA) opposite the Mets' Zac Thornton (3-4, 2.93 ERA). Molina's last turn came against Atlanta on August 31, when he allowed 3 earned runs on 6 hits over 5.0 innings with 6 strikeouts and no walks in a win. Thornton's last start, against Houston on August 30, went the same 5.0 innings — 2 earned runs, 6 hits, 5 strikeouts, no walks — but ended with no decision on 97 pitches.
New York is favored, and the market reads this one as low-scoring, which lines up with two starters who have each worked past 5 innings without issuing a walk in their last turns. For the Giants to win, Molina has to hold that same line, and the lineup needs more than one big night from Devers against a Mets team that's already taken the first meeting of the series.