Indians at Mets
The New York Mets received an unintentional assist from the opposition's All-Star closer to move a season-high six games over .500 while Brad Hand's mental miscue opened the door for the Cleveland Indians' sixth loss in eight contests. The Mets bid for a three-game sweep of the Indians on Thursday night when the clubs reconvene at Citi Field in New York.
Carlos Santana appeared poised to curtail Cleveland's recent troubles with his team-leading 30th homer in the 10th inning, but Hand failed to cover first base on a potential game-ending double play later in the frame in a 4-3 setback on Thursday. J.D. Davis recorded his first career walk-off hit for New York, which has won four in a row and 20 of its last 25 to reside two games behind the Chicago Cubs for the second wild card in the National League. Amed Rosario is batting 17-for-33 in his last seven contests while Wilson Ramos carries a 15-game hitting streak into the series finale. The Indians, who trail American League Central-leading Minnesota by three games, will attempt to thwart their first sweep since May 20-22 against Oakland when they send rookie Aaron Civale to the mound on Thursday.
TV: 7:10 p.m. ET, ESPN, SportsTime Ohio (Cleveland), SNY (Cleveland)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Indians RH Aaron Civale (1-2, 1.50 ERA) vs. Mets RH Noah Syndergaard (8-6, 3.86)
Civale has lost two of his last three starts despite allowing a total of five runs (four earned) and 15 hits in that span. The 24-year-old has kept the ball in the park while working six innings in each of his four career starts, although a two-run first was enough to lead to his undoing in a 3-2 defeat against the New York Yankees on Friday. Civale, who will face a National League foe for the first time, has flustered left-handed batters to the tune of limiting them to a .111 batting average.
Syndergaard turned in his fourth straight strong start on Friday but fell to 1-1 with a 1.65 ERA in that stretch after permitting two runs on five hits in a 4-1 setback at Kansas City. The 26-year-old has yielded just one homer in his last seven trips to the mound heading into his first career encounter against Cleveland. Franmil Reyes (3-for-5, homer) and Santana (4-for-9) have fared well versus the hurler, although Yasiel Puig is just 1-for-10 against Syndergaard.
WALK-OFFS
1. Cleveland 3B Jose Ramirez is 9-for-19 with three homers, eight RBIs and three runs scored during his five-game hitting streak.
2. New York has won the first two contests in the series to improve to 14-5 in interleague play.
3. Puig is 0-for-12 with five strikeouts in the series.