Mets 6, Blue Jays 5: Mets’ Win Doesn’t Come Easy
Mets 6, Blue Jays 5: Mets’ Win Doesn’t Come Easy Mark Blinch/Reuters Mike Baxter was greeted by Kirk Nieuwenhuis after scoring in the fifth. Baxter reached base four times and was a home run short of hitting for the cycle. TORONTO — With the Mets’ failure to take a lead at any point in the first two games of their series here, Frank Francisco, their closer, had not gotten an opportunity to pitch in front of the fans of the Blue Jays, his previous team. The chance came Sunday afternoon, when the Mets sent him to the mound to protect their one-run lead. As the crowd of 41,867 exhaled a thick stream of boos, the Mets seemingly held their breaths. Francisco, after all, had entered the game with an 8.04 earned run average and a collection of self-destructive outings. Another implosion seemed imminent when the first two batters to reached [...]