Jose Peraza homered starting the third inning of the opener and followed with a tiebreaking single in the fourth inning of the second game, helping the Mets sweep a doubleheader from the Colorado Rockies, 1-0 and 4-2, Thursday.
Marcus Stroman (4-4) ended a six-start winless streak, allowing three hits over six innings in the first game. Aaron Loup (2-0) pitched a one-hit fifth inning to win the second game.
Peraza, signed to be a reserve but pressed into everyday duty in the infield because of the Mets’ many injuries, went 2 for 4 with three R.B.I. in the doubleheader after hitting .156 (5 for 32) with a homer and four R.B.I. in his previous 11 games.
“You just have to be prepared, and that’s what I’ve been doing,” Peraza said through an interpreter. “I’m going to try to do my best so we can win every single game. At the end of the day, it’s just being prepared for your opportunity and this is what I’m doing now.”
The doubleheader sweep was the second of the season for the Mets, who have split two other twin bills. Stroman has started a game in three of the Mets’ doubleheaders, pitching 17 innings.
“We only have to use him and a reliever,” Mets Manager Luis Rojas said. “So that’s a blessing to go to the second game, where you have more arms available so you can kind of be a little bit bolder earlier in that game, even though it’s a seven-inning game.”
Colorado lost three in a row after winning the series opener, falling to 3-20 with eight shutout losses on the road this year. The Rockies are 16-12 at mile-high Coors Field, where they have scored in every game.
“You’ve got to tip your hat at times to the opposing pitchers — they threw the ball well. They’ve got a good pitching staff,” manager Bud Black said after the Mets held Colorado to six runs in the series. “We had some opportunities in really, four low-scoring games, and we just couldn’t break through.”
Before the doubleheader, Rojas announced right-hander Noah Syndergaard’s return from Tommy John surgery will be delayed beyond June. Syndergaard, rehabilitating from the operation on March 26 last year, had an M.R.I. that revealed right elbow inflammation and was told not to throw for six weeks.
The Mets are also is missing right-hander right-hander Carlos Carrasco, sidelined until late June or early July by a strained right hamstring that has kept him out since spring training.
“Right now, just being in the middle of the season, I’m looking forward to having everyone healthy at some point,” Rojas said Thursday morning.
Yankees Split Doubleheader With Toronto
A poised and confident Alek Manoah dominated the Yankees with six innings of two-hit ball to win his major league debut, and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Yankees, 2-0, on Thursday in a doubleheader opener.
The Yankees rebounded to win the second game, 5-3, behind Aaron Judge’s tying, two-run homer in the third inning off Robbie Ray and Gary Sanchez’s go-ahead solo drive in the fourth.
Marcus Semien and Bo Bichette hit back-to-back homers in the third inning off Domingo German (4-3) in the makeup of Wednesday night’s rainout. Bichette provided a 3-1 lead in the second game with a three-run homer, but the Yankees beat Toronto for the third time in nine meetings this year.
A 23-year-old right-hander selected 11th in the 2019 amateur draft, Manoah (1-0) was brought up after throwing only 35 professional innings in the minor leagues.
His mother Susana, wearing a white Blue Jays jersey with her son’s name on the back, was part of a cheering section that stood out among the sparse crowd for the late-afternoon start and was visible crying when he faced A.L. batting champion DJ LeMahieu to start his big league career. She later blew her son kisses from the stands.
“I think everyone was hearing the Manoahs today,” the pitcher said with a chuckle.
Manoah became the second Blue Jays starting pitcher to throw at least six scoreless innings in his debut after Mauro Gozzo in 1989.
“I just want to take it all in, and just really enjoy the moment,” Manoah said. “Obviously, there’s another outing in five days, so I got to get ready for that, but just for today, just want to hug my whole family and I think that’s what I’m going to enjoy the most ,is how many people came out to see me, called off (work) sick, made excuses whatever the case may be. They made sure to be here, so I think that’s what I’ll remember the most.”
In the second game, Sanchez put the Yankees ahead by 4-3 with a 444-foot drive over the left-field fence on a full count slider from Ray (2-2).
Judge sent a 3-0 fastball onto the netting in Monument Park in center field, a 440-foot drive, and added a sacrifice fly in the fifth.
Jonathan Loiasiga (4-2) got the final out of the fifth and allowed three hits in the sixth in relief of Jordan Montgomery. With closer Aroldis Chapman sick, Chad Green pitched a perfect ninth for his second save.
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