NEW YORK _ Terry Collins offered Yoenis Cespedes the opportunity to take the day off Sunday. He refused. The Mets' leading home run hitter started the series finale against the Minnesota Twins but ended up playing only six innings, leaving the game with what the Mets said was nausea and dizziness. On a team that has been beset with injuries all season and on Saturday announced pitcher Jacob deGrom was likely finished for the year with elbow trouble, it should hardly have come as a surprise.
The Mets, though, managed to hold on without Cespedes and nevertheless beat the Twins, 3-2, to sweep the weekend series and at least maintain their spot as the first wild-card team. Michael Conforto, starting in right field in place of Jay Bruce, drove in two runs with a first-inning, bases-loaded single and T.J. Rivera hit a third-inning home run to provide the rest of the offense. The Mets got the necessary pitching from its bullpen, with starter Gabriel Ynoa starting things off with 4 2/3 solid innings and five relievers finishing things off. Erik Goeddel (2-1), who escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fifth, got the win, and Jerry Blevins, who got the last four outs, earned his second save this week.
Terry Collins would certainly rather have sent deGrom to the mound for his scheduled start Sunday against the Twins, but pain in deGrom's pitching elbow scuttled that plan. So instead, Collins turned to 23-year-old right-hander Ynoa, who had spent most of the year in Triple-A, and asked him to give the team what he could.
"We certainly don't expect _ unless he's really on _ to get deep'' in the game, Collins said of Ynoa. "We thought today would be a good day to kind of split it [between several relievers], turn their lineup over a little bit, so we'll just see how it goes.''
It couldn't have gone much better for Ynoa and the Mets.
Making his first major-league start, Ynoa gave the Mets 4 2/3 solid innings, allowing a single run, but otherwise making light work of the Twins. He left the game with two outs one on and a 3-1 lead, having thrown 76 pitches.
