SAN DIEGO -- The deeper Drew Pomeranz descends into the National League's gauntlet of aces, the better he seems to perform.
Pomeranz, who had opposed Vince Velasquez, Madison Bumgarner and Clayton Kershaw in three of his previous four starts, may have lasted only five scoreless innings Friday at Petco Park. But it was enough to outpitch Noah Syndergaard in a 2-0 Padres victory over the Mets.
Allowing merely one hit in five innings, Pomeranz skated around leadoff walks in the first and third innings, and escaped a two-on, two-out jam in the fourth. He needed 98 pitches to do so, but the Padres' bullpen took it from there with four additional scoreless innings.

"I wasn't as effective as I would have liked to be,'' Pomeranz said. "I was battling out there in a lot of bad counts but was able to keep them from scoring runs. I would have like to stay in the game longer, but I think overall I did pretty good on a day where I really didn't have my best stuff out there."
The Padres did not do a terrible amount more against Syndergaard, plating runs on a Matt Kemp sacrifice fly in the first inning and a Jon Jay RBI single in the fifth. It was all they needed. The Padres also swiped two bases in three tries off Syndergaard, one of them directly leading to Jay's hit. More >
"I'd like to go out there and have a goal to put up zeroes," Syndergaard said. "Unfortunately, it's not always like that. So tomorrow's a new day. I'll work on some things and get ready to throw the ball in another five days."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Keep on running: Syndergaard and Mets catcher Rene Rivera had already caught one of two would-be base stealers when Jemile Weeks drew a leadoff walk in the fifth inning, then almost immediately took off for second. Just barely beating Rivera's throw to move into scoring position, Weeks was able to motor home two batters later when Jay struck his single up the middle. More >

Kemp with the catch: Kemp made a dazzling play on Yoenis Cespedes' drive to end the sixth while crashing in the right-center field fence. A sprinting Kemp had to reach across his body and above his right shoulder to haul in Cespedes potential extra-base hit.
"He has played incredibly hard out there and has made great plays,'' Padres manager Andy Green said. "A lot of credit goes to the work he put in.'' Earlier in the game, Kemp gave the Padres their initial lead with a sacrifice fly in the first.

Home is where the out is: The Padres erased a potential run at the plate in the seventh, when Wilmer Flores doubled with one out into the left-field corner with Asdrubal Cabrera on first. Cabrera attempted to score, but was retired on a relay from Melvin Upton Jr. to Alexei Ramirez to Derek Norris. Mets manager Terry Collins challenged the play, but the call stood after a 1:06 delay.
"I just went out and said, 'Look, hopefully he dropped the ball,'" Collins said.

Rodney's tightrope: Padres closer Fernando Rodney made the game's final act a bit more dramatic than it needed to be, walking the leadoff man and two of the first three batters he faced in the ninth. But in typical Rodney fashion, he then proceeded to strike out Cabrera and pinch-hitter Alejandro De Aza in succession to end the game.

QUOTABLE
"I think we've been swinging pretty good. I think I'll take one more shot tomorrow with this lineup." -- Collins, joking, on a lineup that had scored 13 runs in two games before mustering just two on Friday
SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
Rivera's pop times on his two throws to second base each clocked in at 1.9 seconds, per Statcast™. That's three-tenths of a second faster than injured starter Travis d'Arnaud is averaging, and two-tenths faster than Kevin Plawecki.
WHAT'S NEXT
Mets: A lineup stacked with right-handed hitters on Friday should return to normal when the Mets face righty James Shields on Saturday at Petco Park. That means Michael Conforto and Neil Walker will both be back in the middle of the lineup in support of starting pitcher Bartolo Colon.
Padres: Shields goes for his second straight win after dropping his first four decisions in the third contest of the fourth-game series against the visiting Mets. Shields is 2-1 lifetime against the Mets. First pitch is at 5:40 p.m. PT.
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