On Wednesday night, Chris Davis woke one drowsy fan up with a mammoth walk-off home run in the 11th inning against the Rays.

Davis’ slam landed several rows up the left-center field bleachers at Camden Yards, where cameras caught one fan casually napping toward the top of the section.

The roar from the crowd appeared to wake the guy as he turned around to see what the commotion was about before the ball landed nearby.

Patrick Semansky/AP

Chris Davis’ 11th inning walk-off home run wakes up the crowd and a sleeping fan.

Perhaps if the man was awake he’d be walking out of Camden Yards with a souvenir.

At least he can say he stayed for the whole game.

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ORIOLES 5, METS 4

BALTIMORE — It was Carlos Torres’ turn this time.

The Mets bullpen has taken its lumps over the last week, and Wednesday night it absorbed another blow. Torres gave up a home run to Henry Urrutia in the bottom of the ninth as the Mets fell to the Orioles, 5-4, at Camden Yards, splitting the two-game series.

“It was exactly where I wanted it. It called for a fastball up, I threw the fastball up,” said Torres, who allowed two runs in 1.1 innings against the Pirates on Sunday.

“These guys unfortunately have seen (Noah) Syndergaard and (Jacob) deGrom, so unfortunately my fastball didn’t seem like their fastball. The guy hit it.”

MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA

The Orioles hose down Henry Urrutia as the left fielder hits his first career home run at the perfect time.

The Mets (64-56) lost for the fourth time in five games, and their lead over Washington in the NL East was reduced to 3.5 games. The Orioles (61-58) snapped a nine-game losing streak to the Mets dating back to 2010.

Mets starter Noah Syndergaard fought through a rough first inning and was chased early in the sixth as he continued to struggle on the road. Daniel Murphy and Wilmer Flores each had a home run and an RBI single.

It was the bullpen that came up short. Before Torres gave up the game-winner, Hansel Robles blew a one-run lead when he gave up a solo, game-tying home run in the seventh to Adam Jones. Torres came in with the game tied at 4, and Urrutia, the Orioles’ rookie left fielder from Cuba, launched his second pitch into the left-center field seats for his first major league home run.

The Mets’ last four losses have all been charged to relievers. The bullpen has now given up 13 earned runs in its last 15 innings pitched.

Tommy Gilligan/USA Today Sports

Noah Syndergaard struggles through five innings, allowing three runs on eight hits.

Terry Collins had to turn to his bullpen early Wednesday because Syndergaard got in trouble quickly and his pitch count ballooned. The pitcher who dominates at Citi Field, where he is 7-1 with a 1.82 ERA, disappears when he gets outside of Queens; on the road, Syndergaard is 0-5 with a 5.05 ERA. In an effort to change his fortunes on Wednesday, he tweaked the timing of his pregame warmup, pushing it up about eight minutes to cut down on the amount of time he sits between throwing in the bullpen and the first pitch.

Still Syndergaard got into instant trouble, with Manny Machado smashing a first-pitch, 96-mph fastball for a leadoff double to right center. Gerardo Parra then connected with a curveball for a single to left before Syndergaard walked Adam Jones to load the bases with no outs.

Syndergaard battled back and dropped a nasty curveball on a 3-2 count to Orioles slugger Chris Davis to strike him out swinging and coaxed a double-play ground ball out of Jonathan Schoop to escape unscathed.

In the fourth, Syndergaard gave up a leadoff double to Jones and an RBI single to Steve Clevenger. With Syndergaard’s pitch count bloated, his pitches were suddenly up in the sixth. He gave up a leadoff double to Davis and then a two-run home run to left by Schoop to tie the game. Clevenger followed with a single to right center and that was the end of Syndergaard’s night.

Patrick Semansky/AP

Daniel Murphy gets the Mets off to a quick start with a home run, but they are unable to hold any leads.

“I feel about as confident as home, I am just not getting the results,” he said. “I thought tonight was a step in the right direction.

. . . The curveball to Schoop, well, this is the big leagues, that is what he is paid to do.”

That lesson proved costly for the Mets. Collins used Logan Verrett, who was limited to one inning because he could be making a spot start for Matt Harvey, to clean up the sixth. Then it became a gamble.

Beyond Tyler Clippard, who pitched a scoreless eighth, and closer Jeurys Familia, Collins has struggled to get consistent outs from his bullpen. “I still have a lot of confidence in them,” the manager said. “You get the matchups you have to get and you have to get the outs you need to get.”

Lately, that has not just not been the case. 

Baseball – NY Daily News

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METS 2, NATIONALS 1 (12 INNINGS)

Who’s crying now?

Certainly not anyone associated with the Mets.

With imported slugger Yoenis Cespedes not slated to join his new team until Saturday, sudden fan favorite Wilmer Flores and the Mets persevered and instantly built on the long-awaited good tidings spawned by the win-now trade GM Sandy Alderson had pulled off earlier on Friday.

Matt Harvey carried a perfect game into the sixth inning and lost his shutout bid in the eighth, before Flores’ leadoff homer in the 12th lifted the going-for-it Mets to an important 2-1 win over first-place Washington at Citi Field on Friday night.

“Unbelievable,” said Flores, who had broken down and cried on the field when he thought he was going to be traded on Wednesday.

“I am sitting here looking at some guys who are outstanding writers — outstanding — and you can’t write that. You guys couldn’t come up with that. And you’re good. Unbelievable,” Terry Collins added. “Can it happen at a better time to a better person in a bigger situation than that? We’re all thrilled for him.”

Flores was driven to tears on the field on Wednesday, when he learned that he and Zack Wheeler were about to be traded in a soon-to-be scuttled deal to Milwaukee. Flores also drove in the first run on Friday as the fortified Mets (53-50) moved back within two games of the Nationals in the NL East. “Aw, man, words can’t really describe what’s been going through his head and us as a team the last couple days,” Harvey said. “Obviously, everything that happened to him is pretty incredible. And tonight to happen the way it did is pretty unreal. Everyone is so happy for him that he did something like that and helped the team get a win.”

Flores, playing second base, made a diving stop to his left for the second out of the first inning. He received a standing ovation from the appreciative crowd and another when he came to bat one inning later.

“I was surprised,” Flores said. “They cheered every time I was coming up to hit and it felt good.”

Flores prompted the fans back to their feet a third time in the fourth, following two walks by lacing a two-out single to left against Washington starter Gio Gonzalez for the game’s first run.

The fans chanted “Wilmer, Wilmer” following Flores’ RBI knock, but Eric Campbell — playing left field one game ahead of Cespedes’ arrival in a trade from Detroit — struck out with the bases loaded to end the inning.

“I think not only us, but I think the Mets fans definitely were rallying around Wilmer and our team throughout the whole game, not just with him, but with everybody,” Harvey said. “I think they felt as much excitement as we definitely felt.

“We knew this was going to be a huge series for us, and to come out on top like we did, it’s a lot of momentum moving forward.”

Harvey, who finished with nine strikeouts in 7.2 innings, retired the first two batters he faced with a 1-0 lead in the eighth before hitting Clint Robinson on the foot, a ruling that was upheld by video review.

Anthony Rendon then reached on an infield single, before Yunel Escobar tied it by lacing a 97 mph fastball — Harvey’s 109th and final pitch —into center for another single.

Former Nats reliever Tyler Clippard caught ex-teammate Jayson Werth looking at a questionable third strike to end a 13-pitch at-bat and the inning, and Jeurys Familia rebounded from his latest blown save on Thursday by recording five outs bridging the next two frames.

Hansel Robles struck out two — including a Bryce Harper flip-out and ejection — in the 11th and Carlos Torres fanned three one inning later.

Flores then ripped a leadoff homer to left-center off lefty reliever Felipe Rivero in the bottom half for his first career walk-off home run and the Mets’ first this season.

“This kid,” Collins said of Flores, “can’t ever forget this moment.”

Baseball – NY Daily News

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METS 3, DODGERS 2 (11 INNINGS)

Jacob deGrom is just learning to embrace these big moments. Juan Uribe has them down pat.

deGrom, the Mets’ All-Star righty, threw 7.2 shutout innings Sunday, but the Mets still needed Uribe’s clutch veteran bat for a crucial 3-2 win over the Dodgers in 10 innings at Citi Field.

With one out in the 10th, Uribe, who just joined the Mets on Saturday, lined a ball off the center field wall, scoring Curtis Granderson from second. Uribe has a reputation of being a “clutch,” hitter and in his second game with the Mets since being traded from Atlanta Friday, he showed this team of young players exactly what that means.

“I think in this moment, it is like when you play in the playoffs, in the World Series and you win it,” Uribe said of his 10th career walkoff hit. “You get traded and you help the team, you feel happy, I feel happy for helping my team.”

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For deGrom and this group of young Mets this is as close to the feeling of “big” games they have had yet in their careers. As Uribe pointed out, the division-leading Nationals had lost by the time Jeurys Familia blew his second straight and fourth save of the season.

“Every day you win is important for the team,” said Uribe, who came in as an offensive switch in the eighth and remained at third base. “More important is that Washington lost today. The team you are fighting for the division, when they lose, you have to win.”

After going 4-6 in a 10-game stretch against first-place teams to start the second half, the Mets are two games out of first — right where they started the second half.

For deGrom, Sunday was his third straight appearances with a little extra pressure: his first All-Star Game appearance, being lined up to start against the Nationals Tuesday and Sunday facing off against Zack Greinke, who had the best ERA in the National League. In the first matchup of the pitchers with the first and second best ERAs in the NL in 10 years, deGrom stepped up to the challenge allowing just two singles, walking two and striking out eight in 7.2 innings.

HARPER: ALDERSON FINALLY GETS METS REVIVAL GOING

“I am definitely enjoying it,” deGrom said of pitching in big games. “I knew going in it would be a close game, so I just wanted to give us a chance to win.”

The Mets, who scored 15 runs Saturday night, snapped Greinke’s scoreless streak at 45.2 innings in the third, with deGrom driving in Kirk Nieuwenhuis on a chopper to first. Adrian Gonzalez tried to prevent the run and threw home, which Nieuwenhuis easily beat. Greinke gave up a second run in the sixth, after walking Lucas Duda to load the bases and then hitting Michael Conforto to bring in a run.

Meanwhile deGrom labored through his last five batters. So with the memory of the Mets losing in the eighth Wednesday as Jeurys Familia threw in the bullpen against the

Nationals, Mets manager Terry Collins went right from deGrom to his closer. Familia got Joc Pederson to ground out to end the eighth, but got in trouble early in the ninth.

Gonzalez doubled with one out and Justin Turner drove him in with a double. Pinch runner Carl Crawford scored from second on Yasmani Grandal’s single past Uribe.

It was Familia’s second blown save since the All-Star break.

“I had a couple bad games, I am not tired. I am doing the same thing I am doing always,” Familia said. “I am just leaving some pitches up and in the middle.”

Jenrry Mejia worked himself into and out of trouble in the top of the 10th and Curtis Granderson stretched a line drive to right center into a double to put himself in position to score. Juan Nicasio intentionally walked Daniel Murphy and then the Dodgers brought in closer Kenlely Jansen to face Uribe.

Uribe, who started the season with the Dodgers before they dumped him on Atlanta, fell behind Jansen 0-2, before he got a cutter up and crushed it over Joc Pederson’s head in center field. A Dodger for five seasons until May, Uribe has clearly moved on.

“I have five years there, I have a very good time there,” Uribe said. “Now this is my team here. I don’t care the other team, I am just helping my team.”  

Baseball – NY Daily News

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