Field Level Media
Apr 10, 2019
Mitch Garver hit two home runs and tied a career high with four hits Tuesday night, and Jorge Polanco finished a double shy of his second cycle of the season as the visiting Minnesota Twins took advantage of a rare hiccup by reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom in a 14-8 win over the New York Mets on Tuesday.
The Twins have alternated wins with losses in their last five games. The Mets have dropped two straight and three of four.
Polanco and Garver helped the Twins end two historic streaks by deGrom (2-1), who gave up six runs on eight hits and one walk while striking out three over four innings. DeGrom entered Tuesday having given up three runs or fewer in each of his previous 31 starts, the longest such MLB streak, and having produced a quality start 26 straight times, tying the record set by Bob Gibson in 1967-68.
But deGrom never seemed right Tuesday, when he gave up two hard-hit long flyouts after Polanco's one-out bunt single in the first. Garver homered leading off the second before the Twins scored four times in the third. Polanco tripled with one out and scored on a wild pitch. Willians Astudillo followed with a single, after which Eddie Rosario and Garver hit back-to-back homers.
Garver is just the third player to enjoy a multi-homer game against deGrom, who gave up a major league-low 0.42 homers per nine innings last year. Mark Teixeira (April 24, 2015) and Giancarlo Stanton (July 7, 2016) also went deep twice off deGrom.
Max Kepler added an RBI single in the fourth off deGrom, who had his worst outing since he gave up nine runs (five earned) over 3 2/3 innings against the Philadelphia Phillies on Sept. 5, 2017.
Amed Rosario (3-for-5) had an RBI double in the second and Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto homered in the third for the Mets, who had a chance to take the lead when they chased Twins starter Kyle Gibson with two outs and the bases loaded in the fifth. But Trevor Hildenberger (2-0) retired Jeff McNeil on a lineout.
Jonathan Schoop hit a solo homer in the sixth and a three-run shot in the ninth for the Twins. Polanco, who hit for the cycle on Friday, hit a two-run homer in the eighth. Pinch-hitter Jason Castro had an RBI single in the ninth.
Rookie Pete Alonso hit a solo homer in the seventh and added a two-run blast during a four-run ninth by the Mets, who also received a bases-loaded walk from McNeil and a run-scoring fielder's choice grounder by Travis d'Arnaud.
Gibson gave up three runs on six hits and three walks while striking out six over his 4 2/3 innings.
--Field Level Media