Cespedes, Syndergaard, Spoil Samardzija's Night

There was an aura that the stars would align for Jeff Samardzija, bright enough to pierce the thick San Francisco fog to give the starter the glimmer of hope for which he has so desperately been searching since the calendar flipped to June.

Through six innings at AT&T Park, the Notre Dame product shined bright on the mound, looking reminiscent of his early-season form, but two pitches which didn't make it quite low enough in the strike zone turned a potential season-changing start into another case of mere baby steps.

After carrying his no-hit bid two-thirds of the way to the promise land, Curtis Granderson lined an opposite field to break up Samardzija's no-hit bid, and the red-hot Yoenis Cespedes immediately followed his fellow outfielder with a two-run blast, giving the New York Mets the two and only runs of the ballgame.

With Noah Syndergaard on the mound, a pair of runs were more than enough as New York's ace of staff, who handcuffed the Giants bats over his eight innings of work, holding the orange and black to two measly singles before handing the ball off to Jeurys Familia to finish the job in the ninth.

Samardzija and Syndergaard, in the battle of complicated last names which start with the letter "s", put on a marvelous pitching display on the national stage of Sunday Night Baseball, trading zeros each inning they stepped on the mound.

Both starters made it clear from the jump that the game was going to revolve around pitching, combining to set down the first 14 Giants and Mets before Samardzija walked his counterpart with two outs in the top of the third inning.

Samardzija got some help from Gold Glover Brandon Crawford from the get go when the shortstop dove to snag a one-hop liner to his right, then fired a bullet to Brandon Belt to retire leadoff batter José Reyes.

San Francisco got its first baserunner of the game in the same inning when Syndergaard walked Trevor Brown with one out, but he was quickly erased off the basepaths when fellow catcher Rene Rivera threw him out trying to steal second after a late jump.

Baserunners were at a premium on both sides, but San Francisco gave away another when Rivera threw out another would-be base stealer in the following inning, gunning down Eduardo Núñez following an infield single.

San Francisco's only other baserunner of the game when facing New York's All-Star pitcher came on a two-out single from Joe Panik in the bottom of the fifth inning, but the second baseman wouldn't make it past first.

Samardzija brushed off the early walk and continued to retire Met after Met, and after setting down the side in the sixth, he broke his now previous personal record of pitching 5.2 innings without allowing a hit.

Granderson ended Samardzija's hopes of throwing the first no-hitter of his career with a line drive double just past the outstretched glove of Gregor Blanco in left field.

The pitch, a 1-0 splitter down and away, hit the intended target, but Granderson did an excellent job taking the pitch the left and putting a nice and fluid swing on the ball.

Once the ball landed and began to roll towards the wall, all in attendance immediately groaned, realizing that Granderson snatched Samardzija's chance at history.

Following the double, the attention of the game shifted from Samardzija's chance at a no-hitter to a ballgame between two teams fighting for the playoffs late in the season.

Cespedes responded to the shift in the atmosphere of the game in grand fashion, launching a pitch in the same location as the one of Granderson's double over the left field fence to give New York a 2-0 lead, which would eventually become the final score.

Syndergaard took kindly to having room to breathe, retiring the final six batters of his day before Mets' manager Terry Collins turned the ball over to Familia.

Buster Posey singled in the bottom of the ninth, giving the Giants a little thunder. Denard Span tried to bunt his way aboard, but Rivera made an excellent plan to record the out at first.

Familia capped off the ballgame with a three-pitch strikeout against Núñez, sealing the deal which gave the Mets a split of this four-game series.

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