Field Level Media
Apr 15, 2018
Wilmer Flores homered with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning on Sunday afternoon to give the New York Mets a 3-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers at Citi Field.
The Mets improved to 12-2 -- their best start ever -- and also have won five series to open a season for the first time. The Brewers are 8-8.
Flores' third career walk-off homer made a winner out of Jeurys Familia (1-0), who threw a hitless ninth. Matt Albers (2-1) served up the homer and took the loss.
Brandon Nimmo missed the cycle by a double and scored the Mets' first two runs. Nimmo led off with a single in the first and eventually scored on Todd Frazier's single before he homered leading off the sixth.
The Brewers took a brief lead in the sixth, when they loaded the bases with two outs before Jesus Aguilar and Lorenzo Cain scored after Amed Rosario misplayed Hernan Perez's grounder.
Aguilar was in the game for Eric Thames, who was lifted after the third inning due to a hip injury. With Ryan Braun (back) and Manny Pina (calf) at less than 100 percent, the Brewers had just one healthy player on the bench -- Eric Sogard, who entered in a double switch in the sixth. Braun flew out as a pinch hitter to end the eighth.
Right-handers Noah Syndergaard of the Mets and Jhoulys Chacin of the Brewers didn't factor into the decision despite eventful starts.
Syndergaard allowed an unearned run on two hits and one walk while striking out 11 over 5 1/3 innings. He struck out eight straight between the second and the fourth, two shy of the major league record set by ex-Mets pitcher Tom Seaver. Syndergaard's streak was broken up when Perez singled leading off the fifth for the Brewers' first hit.
Chacin allowed one run on five hits and three walks while striking out four over four innings. The Mets stranded eight runners against Chacin, who batted for himself with a runner on third and two outs in the top of the fifth due to the Brewers' short bench and was robbed of an RBI single by Rosario.
--Field Level Media