Converted starter Jose Butto has emerged as a game-changer for the Mets out of the bullpen as a multiple-inning weapon since returning from the minors earlier this month.
Butto and Dedniel Nunez continued to provide a lift for a once-shaky bullpen, combining to record the final 14 outs of the Mets’ 7-3 victory Saturday over the Rockies at Citi Field — their fifth win in a row with one game remaining before the All-Star break.
Jeff McNeil drove in two key runs and Francisco Lindor cracked a three-run homer in the eighth inning for the surging Mets, who have posted a 25-10 record over their past 35 games to improve to 49-45 overall while taking over the second wild-card position in the National League.
“I think it starts with having good players. When you look in that locker room, there’s a lot of great players. That’s where it starts,” Carlos Mendoza said before the game. “But they’re pushing each other, holding each other accountable and preparing the right way, and then going out there and not only competing, but having fun. So that’s how you put some consistent, good baseball [together].”
Rookie righty Christian Scott lasted 4 ¹/₃ innings in his third start since being recalled from Triple-A Syracuse for a second big-league stint this season.
He allowed three runs on seven hits with one walk and five strikeouts, including a two-run homer by Charlie Blackmon in the fifth to cut the Mets’ lead to 4-3.
Butto, who hasn’t allowed a run over 7 ²/₃ innings in four relief appearances since July 2, replaced Scott with two runners aboard in the inning and escaped trouble by retiring getting Elias Diaz to ground into a 3-6-1 double play.
Butto fanned five over the next two innings to maintain the one-run lead before allowing a single and a walk to open the eighth.
Nunez, who has stranded all 12 runners he has inherited this season, replaced him and quickly got Diaz to bounce into another double play.
Brenton Doyle then fouled out to end the inning before Nunez also worked a scoreless ninth for his first career save.
The Mets have been going so well for the past several weeks that Mendoza was comfortable taking two hot players — who belted two home runs apiece the previous night — out of the lineup.
Harrison Bader and Jose Iglesias, who accounted for four of the Mets’ five homers in their 7-6 win Friday night over the Rockies, sat down for the second game of the weekend series.
Brandon Nimmo started in center field to replace Bader, with Ben Gamel in left and DJ Stewart in right. McNeil started at second base for Iglesias after playing right field in Friday’s game.
The slumping McNeil provided a two-run double in the second inning for a 4-0 Mets lead after they scored their first two runs on a throwing error by Rockies second baseman Brendan Rodgers on a potential double-play grounder by Luis Torrens.
Scott, who is still searching for his first major-league win after eight starts, was tagged for a solo shot by Jake Cave in the third to cut the Mets’ lead to 4-1.
Scott could not complete the fifth, but Butto and the bullpen bailed out the Mets from there.
Butto, who made seven big-league starts earlier this season, had recorded the final four outs Wednesday night against Washington for his first major-league save.
“He’s not afraid,” Mendoza said Friday about Butto. “He’ll take the ball, regardless of the situation, and we saw that the other day, coming in [a] high-leverage [situation] against the Nationals. He’s gonna come in and he’s gonna attack hitters. So I like that.”
Lindor crushed his 17th homer of the season in the eighth, a three-run blast to center off Jalen Beeks, to extend the Mets’ lead to 7-3.