Zac Thornton’s scoreless stretch is over.
But the rookie’s latest solid outing has put more important streaks in play.
With his fourth straight start of at least six innings, Thornton earned his second career (and consecutive) win, leading the Mets to a 14-3 victory over the Braves on Monday night at Citi Field. Aided by a late offensive explosion — the team finished with 19 hits after scoring nine runs in its final two innings — the Mets claimed their second straight win over a first-place team, as well as their first back-to-back wins since July 8-9.
Thornton (2-1, 2.43 ERA) entered his fifth career start having thrown 18 straight scoreless innings — the longest such stretch by a Mets rookie since 2016 (Steven Matz) — but the southpaw allowed a run before his first inning was done.
Still, the 24-year-old exited to a standing ovation in the rain after pitching into the seventh inning. Thornton allowed three runs, six hits and one walk in 6 ¹/₃ innings, with five strikeouts on 81 pitches (54 strikes).
“What he has done has not surprised me, [but] the string of zeroes is surprising for anybody,” Mets interim manager Andy Green said before the game. “He has done a lot of tremendous things. He’s attacked the zone the way he does. He has gotten pitches chased at the right time. He’s missed barrels and gotten on handles. That doesn’t surprise me. Process-wise, he has done what we expected him to be. Results-wise, he’s had a good run. We expect runs to cross the plate at some point in time against him, but the way he has gone about his business, the conviction on the mound is not surprising at all.
“Guys will adjust to what he has done. That said, he’s got five pitches. He doesn’t have to do the same thing to be successful. I think he’ll continue to show he belongs here and continue to make the adjustments as necessary as time goes on.”
Entering the night, opponents were hitting .175 against Thornton. But the lefty surrendered three hits before he recorded three outs, seeing his shutout streak end at 18 ²/₃ innings after Ozzie Albies beat out Francisco Lindor’s throw for a run-scoring infield single. The rookie allowed just three more hits over the next 5 ¹/₃ innings.
The Mets never fell behind again after Lindor hit a first-inning triple off the top of the right field wall, bringing home A.J. Ewing. After Thornton settled down and retired seven straight, Ewing delivered his second of three singles and Lindor hit a shot that barely cleared the left field wall, giving the Mets a 3-1 lead on his seventh home run of the season.
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Albies evened the score with a two-run homer in the fourth inning, but Marcus Semien (2-for-3 with a walk) put the Mets back in front with a two-run homer to left in the sixth. His 12th home run of the year was his third in the past five games.
Tyrone Taylor put the game away with a three-run blast one inning later for his second homer in as many days. Lindor then capped a five-run eighth by smacking a three-run homer to left for his 23rd career multihomer game.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
