NEW YORK — Kodai Senga struck out 10 over six scoreless innings, Jeff McNeil and Jonathan Araúz homered, and the New York Mets continued playing the spoiler with an 11-1 rout of the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday.
The Diamondbacks dropped the final three games of a four-game series against the Mets to fall into a tie for the third NL wild-card spot with the Cincinnati Reds (76-72) and San Francisco Giants. The Reds, who visit New York for a weekend series, have the tiebreaker over Arizona by virtue of winning the season series 4-3.
The Reds fell to the Detroit Tigers 8-2 on Thursday. The Giants' (75-71) game against the Colorado Rockies was postponed because of weather.
The Diamondbacks overcame an eighth-inning deficit to earn a 4-3 win Monday before the Mets won the next three by a combined 25-6. Arizona’s top two starters, Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly, gave up 14 runs (13 earned) over 10 innings in the final two games of the series.
Kelly (11-7) allowed seven runs and struck out seven in five innings on Thursday.
Brandon Nimmo hit a two-run double in the third for the Mets. Pete Alonso hit an RBI double and DJ Stewart hit a two-run single before McNeil capped the five-run fifth with his second homer of the series, a two-run shot to right.
Francisco Alvarez had an RBI double in the seventh. Arizona backup catcher Seby Zavala got the final two outs of the eighth after Araúz hit a three-run pinch-hit homer.
Senga (11-7) gave up two hits and walked two. He retired 13 straight following Tommy Pham’s two-out single in the first and wriggled out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth by getting Christian Walker to fly out to center.
The 30-year-old has a 2.95 ERA. Only four rookies in Mets history — Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Jon Matlack and Dwight Gooden — have qualified for the ERA title and posted a sub-3.00 ERA.
A LEAGUE OF HER OWN
Maybelle Blair, who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League — the basis for the movie “A League of Their Own” — received the first Amazin’ Mets Foundation Legacy Award in a pregame ceremony. Alex Cohen, the wife of Mets owner Steve Cohen, presented Blair the award before Blair, 96, threw out a first pitch to Elizabeth Benn, New York’s director of major league operations.
“In my day, we had no opportunity whatsoever to be able to be around baseball, a game that you love so much,” Blair said in a pregame news conference. “And they have opened the door up to us women. We are now executives. We are now owners. We are a little bit of everything in baseball.”
The Mets also showed Blair their women’s locker room, which had a locker with her name above it.
“I absolutely about cried,” Blair said. “You have no idea how I feel. First time in my life I ever felt that. Wonderful to be able to say I had a locker in a major league (clubhouse).”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Diamondbacks: C Gabriel Moreno, whose wife gave birth to the couple’s first child on Monday, returned from the paternity list and exchanged hugs and handshakes with teammates in the clubhouse. ... C Jose Herrera was optioned to Triple-A Reno in a corresponding move.
Mets: 3B Brett Baty is day-to-day with a left groin strain suffered in Wednesday’s game. … IF Ronny Mauricio (illness), who didn’t play Wednesday, felt better Thursday but didn’t play.
UP NEXT
Diamondbacks: RHP Brandon Pfaadt (1-8, 6.25 ERA) will start Friday’s opener of a pivotal three-game home series against the Chicago Cubs. Arizona took three of four from the Cubs last weekend in Chicago.
Mets: Will get a chance to play spoiler again when LHP David Peterson (3-8, 5.34 ERA) starts the first game of a three-game series against the visiting Cincinnati Reds. RHP Hunter Greene (4-6, 4.43 ERA) will start for the Reds.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
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The city of Phoenix is home to five major professional sports league teams; The NFL's Arizona Cardinals, NBA's Phoenix Suns, WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, MLB's Arizona Diamondbacks and NHL's Arizona Coyotes.
The Cardinals have made the State Farm Stadium in Glendale their home turf and the Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix is home to both the Suns and the Mercury. The Indoor Football League’s Arizona Rattlers also play at the Footprint. Phoenix has a soccer team with the USL's Phoenix Rising FC.
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