{"id":85359,"date":"2025-06-07T05:24:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T05:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/85359\/"},"modified":"2025-06-07T05:24:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T05:24:13","slug":"new-york-mets-4-colorado-rockies-2-lindor-spoils-ritters-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/85359\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Mets 4, Colorado Rockies 2: Lindor spoils Ritter\u2019s debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Colorado Rockies<\/a> battled throughout the game, but a few missed opportunities kept the New York Mets<\/a> in the contest long enough for Francisco Lindor to come through with a late, game-deciding hit that sent the Coors Field crowd home disappointed.<\/p>\n

Roli-tela Relay<\/p>\n

Antonio Senzatela entered Friday\u2019s contest with an 12.00 ERA in the first inning<\/a>. It\u2019s no wonder, then, that manager Warren Schaeffer decided to experiment with Ryan Rolison, himself a former starter, opening the game. As it turns out, it was a solid plan. <\/p>\n

Rolison allowed a two-out Juan Soto single and naught else as he blanked New York in his sole inning, then handed the baton to Senzatela. He was able to keep the Mets<\/a> off the board for the next four innings, working around whatever hits they did accrue and allowing minimal hard contact – at least, relative to some of his other pitching performances.<\/p>\n

Though he had to leave in the sixth inning, it was easily Senzatela\u2019s best outing since his first start of the year<\/a> against the Tampa Bay Rays<\/a>. Have the Rockies unlocked something with this opener idea? We\u2019ll have to see.<\/p>\n

Money-ak madness<\/p>\n

Did ya\u2019ll know I like Mickey Moniak<\/a>? He showed why I\u2019ve got faith in his abilities when, in the bottom of the third inning, he opened the scoring by sending a Kodai Senga sweeper out into the right field stands. <\/p>\n

The 390-foot shot, his sixth of the season, put the Rockies up 1-0 and set them up for success early in this one. <\/p>\n

Ritter arrives in style<\/p>\n

Ryan Ritter, called up to the Majors after an absolutely blistering performance with Triple-A Albuquerque<\/a> in May, fulfilled the dream of every young kid playing catch with his friends when he took the field to start Friday\u2019s game at shortstop. With his family looking on in the stands, Ritter strode to the plate in the bottom of the fifth, looking to get his first MLB knock out of the way. As it turns out, a base hit just wouldn\u2019t suffice.<\/p>\n

No, the hot bat of Ritter didn\u2019t cool off when he flew to Colorado. Instead, he used it to lace Senga\u2019s 2-0 slider into left-center field, splitting the outfielders. The speedy shortstop then raced all the way to third base for his first hit in the Majors, adding to the Rockies\u2019 league-leading amount of triples<\/a>. You want more trivia? How about Ritter being the first Rockie to triple for their first career knock<\/a> – ever? Not bad, kid. <\/p>\n

He\u2019d then score on a fielder\u2019s choice by Moniak, doubling Colorado\u2019s lead…. or not. What was originally called a run was instead was installed ruled an out after official review. Alas. <\/p>\n

Bird\u2019s tightrope walk<\/p>\n

Senzatela managed to silence the bats of the Mets for most of the game, but ran into the trouble in the top of the sixth when he allowed back-to-back walks to Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil to open the frame. Jake Bird then entered in relief, but plunked Tyrone Taylor to load the bases with nobody out. Yeesh.<\/p>\n

But Bird is made of strong stuff. The All-Star candidate relief pitcher<\/a> gathered himself, then attacked with fervor, striking out Brett Baty, Franscio Alvarez, and Ronny Mauricio in succession, letting out a triumphant yell amid the roar of the Coors Field crowd.<\/p>\n

With just nine outs to go, it would be up to the rest of the Rockies bullpen to hang on to a perilous one-run advantage. <\/p>\n

Polar bear attacks<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the Mets refused to go lightly. The top of the seventh saw Tyler Kinley enter in relief for the Rockies. After recording a ground out, Kinley allowed consecutive singles to put runners on first and second for the slugging Pete Alonso. The two-time Home Run Derby champion<\/a> then fell behind 0-2, but punched Kinley\u2019s slider out into the outfield to score two runs, giving New York the 2-1 lead.<\/p>\n

Not done yet<\/p>\n

Colorado wouldn\u2019t go down so quietly, either. In the bottom of that seventh inning, Sam Hilliard stepped up to pinch-hit for Keston Hiura with one out. Wasting no time, the strong outfielder launched the first pitch he saw high into the Denver night sky, narrowly missing a home run but good enough for the team\u2019s second triple of the night. He didn\u2019t wait long before scrambling home on Mickey Moniak\u2019s RBI hit, squaring things up at 2. <\/p>\n

This one was going to be decided in the game\u2019s final moments. <\/p>\n

Lindor\u2019s late heroics<\/p>\n

The Rockies actually had the bases loaded with nobody out, but found themselves unable to score after an unfortunate line drive double play and a strikeout. As such, things remained deadlocked at 2-2 as the ninth inning began. Zach Agnos took the mound and struck out Starling Marte before allowing Juan Soto and Pete Alonso to reach base. He managed to coax a fly out from Jeff McNeil, but Francisco Lindor, pinch-hitting for Tyrone Taylor, doubled in two runs to return the lead to New York. <\/p>\n

That was the final blow. The Rockies could muster no more resistance, and after a quiet bottom of the ninth, thusly fell 4-2, dropping their record to 12-51 and snapping their modest win streak.<\/p>\n

Up Next <\/p>\n

Game two of the series will take place tomorrow evening when New York\u2019s closer-turned-starter Clay Holmes (6-3, 3.07 ERA) matches up against promising Colorado newcomer Carson Palmquist (0-4, 8.50 ERA).<\/p>\n

That game begins at 7:40pm MDT. See you then!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Colorado Rockies battled throughout the game, but a few missed opportunities kept the New York Mets in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,167,2212,199,181,1077,101,4,292,1690,61,2548,4203,178,19396,168,179,898,10145,293],"class_list":{"0":"post-85359","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-colorado","10":"tag-colorado-rockies-scores-standings","11":"tag-debut","12":"tag-front-page","13":"tag-lindor","14":"tag-mets","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-new","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-mets","19":"tag-newyork","20":"tag-newyorkmets","21":"tag-purple","22":"tag-ritter","23":"tag-rockies","24":"tag-row","25":"tag-s","26":"tag-spoils","27":"tag-york"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114640418676867315","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}