Yu Darvish, gifted an immediate two-run lead thanks to a first-inning home run by Josh Bell, was at risk of unraveling himself in the bottom of the first, when the Mets put two runners on and began their expected stolen base parade, taking advantage of Darvish’s struggles of holding runners on throughout the season.
But Darvish settled in, striking out Pete Alonso looking and forcing Daniel Vogelbach to fly out to right field to end the threat, and help Darvish settle in for seven innings of one-run ball.
But that first inning, and a rowdy Citi Field crowd, almost made it a very different night.
“During the warmup…I had my headphones on to basically try to block the noise out of the crowd and the stadium, so that was good going into the game,” Darvish said. “Once I was in trouble that inning, The stadium was so loud that it felt like basically someone was screaming into my ears.”
The crowd in Queens was clearly fired up for its first postseason came in six years, and the energy was notable to start the game, but as Darvish settled down and Max Scherzer crumbled, the fans didn’t have much, if anything, to cheer about after that first inning.
“I just reminded myself that it’s just noise and to just go out there and do my thing,” Darvish said. “That’s kind of how I got through it.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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