Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
NY Mets 8, Houston 3
When: 1:10 PM ET, Sunday, September 28, 2014
Where: Citi Field, New York City, New York
Temperature: 81°
Umpires: Home - Jon Byrne, 1B - Jerry Layne, 2B - Hunter Wendelstedt, 3B - Will Little
Attendance: 34897

Mets 8, Astros 3: Lucas Duda homered, doubled and drove in four runs as host New York won the season finale, while Houston’s Jose Altuve sealed the American League batting title.

Duda snapped a 2-2 tie with a two-run double in the fifth and added his 30th homer of the season in the eighth. Matt den Dekker finished 2-for-4 with a run scored and a RBI, and Bartolo Colon (15-13) gave up three runs on eight hits in six innings to earn his 204th career victory.

Altuve, who was not in the original starting lineup, convinced interim manager Tom Lawless to play him and went 2-for-4 to finish at .341, becoming the first Astro to win a batting crown. Max Stassi collected two hits and two RBIs and Nick Tropeano (1-3) surrendered four runs on six hits in five innings.

Daniel Murphy’s sacrifice fly in the first gave the Mets an early advantage, but Jon Singleton doubled leading off the Houston second and scored on Stassi’s ground-rule double to tie the contest. Den Dekker’s run-scoring single to center in the third plated Juan Centeno, but Altuve legged out an infield single in the fifth to drive home Gregorio Petit and even the score 2-2.

New York outfielder Bobby Abreu, playing in his final major-league game, singled with two outs in the fifth and after Murphy walked, Duda’s double to right plated pinch-runner Eric Young Jr. and Murphy to make it 4-2. Stassi’s single to right in the sixth pulled the Astros within 4-3, but two-run homers by Duda and Ruben Tejada in the eighth blew it open.

GAME NOTEBOOK: The Mets finished 79-83, their best record since 2010. … Houston’s final record of 70-92 marks a 19-game improvement from last season’s 51-111 mark, and snaps a string of three consecutive 100-defeat seasons. … Den Dekker finished the season on an eight-game hitting streak.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Houston   NY Mets
Nicholas Tropeano Player Bartolo Colon
Loss W/L Win
5.0 IP 6.0
1 Strikeouts 4
6 Hits 8
7.20 ERA 4.50
Hitting
Houston   NY Mets
Jose Altuve Player Lucas Duda
2 Hits 2
1 RBI 4
0 HR 1
3 TB 6
.500 Avg .500
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Houston 8 0 13 .242 12 6 3 2 0 0
NY Mets 10 2 20 .323 8 1 8 3 1 0