San Diego Padres vs New York Mets Match Player Stats On Jul 23, 2018

Freddy Galvis and Manuel Margot had RBI hits in consecutive at-bats Monday night for the San Diego Padres, who took advantage of shoddy fielding by the Mets to defeat host New York and ace right-hander Jacob deGrom, 3-2, in the opener of a three-game series at Citi Field.

The Padres have split their first four games following the All-Star Break. The Mets have lost 36 of their last 51 and are now only one game ahead of San Diego in the "race" for the worst record in the NL.

DeGrom (5-5) allowed just one hit while facing the minimum through the first four innings and was nursing a 1-0 lead before the Mets' defense began letting him down in the fifth. Right fielder Jose Bautista dropped a routine one-out fly by Christian Villanueva, who stole second and scored the game-tying run on Galvis' single. Margot followed with a triple to deep center field.

The Padres extended their lead to 3-1 thanks to another Mets error in the sixth, when Wil Myers led off with a double and scored when shortstop Amed Rosario overran Eric Hosmer's grounder. The run was earned because Villanueva followed with a long fly out to right.

The Mets closed to within 3-2 in the sixth, when back-to-back singles by Bautista and Michael Conforto chased Padres starter Joey Lucchesi. Craig Stammen loaded the bases by plunking Brandon Nimmo with two outs, after which Jose Reyes beat out an infield single to score Bautista. But deGrom grounded out to short to leave the bases loaded.

Lucchesi (5-5) earned the win after allowing the two runs on six hits and no walks while striking out six over 5 1/3 innings.

Stammen tossed 1 2/3 innings before giving way to Phil Maton, who struck out two in a perfect eighth. Kirby Yates, who became the Padres' closer following the trade of Brad Hand to the Cleveland Indians last Thursday, tossed a hitless ninth to earn his third save.

Myers had two hits for the Padres.

Wilmer Flores had an RBI single in the third for the Mets while Conforto recorded two hits.

DeGrom allowed the three runs (two earned) on five hits and two walks while striking out 10. His major league-leading ERA rose from 1.68 to 1.71. DeGrom is 3-3 with seven no-decisions when pitching at least seven innings this year.

--Field Level Media