Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo hit homers in win hours after GM Billy Eppler addresses Mets’ woes – The Denver Post

The Mets front office believes the fate of the team will change this season. Hours after general manager Billy Eppler voiced his confidence in the team he put together, they repaid him by defeating the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-2, on Tuesday night at Citi Field.

Brandon Nimmo homered twice, Francisco Lindor hit his 200th career home run and Daniel Vogelbach, the analytical darling that Eppler and Mets continue to play, hit his fifth of the season. Left-hander David Peterson (2-6), who was called up earlier in the day to take Tylor Megill’s place in the rotation, turned in his best performance of the season, tossing six shutout innings.

“I wanted to give the team as much as I had and get deep into this ballgame,” Peterson said. “That was kind of the objective.”

The Mets’ big inning came in the sixth when Tommy Pham doubled off of right-hander Julio Teheran to score Pete Alonso and make it 5-0. Vogelbach then chased Teheran from the game with a two-run shot to push the lead to 7-0.

Teheran, who tormented the Mets as a member of the Atlanta Braves for nine seasons, didn’t allow a hit until the third inning when Nimmo led off the inning by driving a 1-2 cutter into the center field seats. Two batters later, Lindor teed off on Teheran (2-3).

“First at-bat, he struck me out. So I was focused on trying to get him over the middle of the plate because he didn’t really give me much that first at-bat,” Nimmo said. “I was able to get him over the plate twice to be able to do some damage on him. I thought we did a really good job because it seems like no one else has really touched him up yet.”

With the way the bullpen has been performing, a 2-0 lead can disappear in an instant. A beleaguered relief unit needed a decently long outing and the Mets pushed Peterson as far as he could go. He wasn’t exactly efficient with five hits and three walks, but he benefited from two double plays and a fantastic play by Lindor to leave one stranded in the sixth inning.

“Lindor continues to play shortstop at a really high level,” said manager Buck Showalter. “Those are hard plays.”

Peterson struck out five and lowered his ERA by more than a full point to 7.00.

“He had some movement down and got a lot of ground balls,” said Showalter. “He survived the first inning, which was probably the difference. I think the double-play ball in the first inning was probably real key.”

The decision to bring up Peterson instead of left-hander Joey Lucchesi was puzzling, but the Mets chose to ignore ERA and focus on underlying metrics and mechanical improvements.

“We’re seeing some encouraging things with some locations and the shape of the pitches,” Eppler said before the game. “Wanted to give David another run. I think some of the components that drive success — the strikeout rate, walk rate — those things are there, and he’s attacking the strike zone a lot more in recent outings. So we wanted to give him another run.”

The move paid off. Peterson will likely get at least one more turn through the rotation with Jose Quintana nearing the end of his rehab.

“It was getting outs, being efficient, getting first-pitch strikes, getting ahead of hitters,” Peterson said. “I didn’t do a great job of that in the first couple of innings. Just trying to get ahead of guys and get their backs against the wall instead of me being against the wall.”

However, the bullpen woes continued. Right-hander Jeff Brigham struggled through the eighth and allowed two runs on two hits and two walks to the Brewers (41-38). He was removed after Brian Anderson hit a two-out, two-run double to left field.

Right-hander Dominic Leone finished the eighth and took the ninth to help the Mets (36-43) secure the win and tie the series at 1-1.

“It was a big inning and a third by Dom to keep us from having to go into the bullpen again,” Showalter said.

It was only the Mets’ fifth win in their last 12 games. The team isn’t ready to give away the season, though if they don’t start stringing wins together they’ll do that anyway. For now, it was a reminder of what they’re capable of when things are going well.

“Do the same thing tomorrow,” Showalter said. “Rinse and repeat. Situations you’re in don’t happen overnight, positive or negative. You go to sleep, get up tomorrow and try to find a way to do it again.”

()