Tomas Nido homered leading off the bottom of the 13th inning Saturday night as the New York Mets finally outlasted the Detroit Tigers, 5-4.
The Mets are 5-1 on a seven-game homestand. The Tigers have dropped 10 of 11.
The Mets loaded the bases with one out and failed to score in the bottom of the 11th before the Tigers did the same thing in the top of the 12th. Nido, who was the last player on the Mets' bench when he entered in the 11th inning, capped a four-hour and 11-minute duel when he hit his first walk-off homer off Buck Farmer (3-4).
Hector Santiago (1-0) tossed two innings for the Mets, who received two homers and four RBIs from catcher Wilson Ramos, who left for a pinch-runner in the 11th and was replaced by Nido. The two-homer game was the eighth of Ramos' career and his first since last June 25.
Dawel Lugo had a career-high four hits for the Tigers while JaCoby Jones had two hits, an RBI and two stolen bases.
Nicholas Castellanos lofted a sacrifice fly in the first inning for the Tigers. Ramos homered leading off the second. The Mets went ahead in the fourth, when J.D. Davis reached on an error by Lugo, took second and third base on consecutive balks by Detroit starting pitcher Ryan Carpenter and scored on Ramos' one-out single.
Brandon Dixon's two-run pinch-hit homer -- his first career pinch-hit blast -- put the Tigers ahead 3-2 in the sixth, but Ramos hit a two-run homer with two outs in the sixth to give the Mets a 4-3 lead.
The Tigers tied the game in the eighth, when Josh Harrison doubled with one out, went to third on a groundout by Grayson Greiner and scored on Jones' single against Mets closer Edwin Diaz, who was pitching in the eighth inning for the first time this season.
Both teams received surprisingly strong performances from their starting pitchers.
Carpenter, who was recalled from Triple-A Toledo prior to the game and entered Saturday with an 8.90 ERA in eight big league appearances, allowed two runs (one earned) on two hits and no walks while striking out five over five innings.
Mets left-hander Jason Vargas, who hadn't pitched in the bigs since suffering a left hamstring injury May 5, allowed one run on five hits and three walks while striking out three over five innings. Vargas lowered his ERA from 5.92 to 5.22.
--Field Level Media
Detroit | NY Mets | |
Ryan Carpenter | Player | Jason Vargas |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
5.0 | IP | 5.0 |
5 | Strikeouts | 3 |
2 | Hits | 5 |
1.80 | ERA | 1.80 |
Detroit | NY Mets | |
Dawel Lugo | Player | Wilson Ramos |
4 | Hits | 3 |
0 | RBI | 4 |
0 | HR | 2 |
4 | TB | 9 |
.571 | Avg | .750 |