The Mets were cruising in Sacramento when the Athletics made a furious comeback late, but Pete Alonso's eight-inning home run gave New York enough juice to pull out the 7-6 victory on Friday night.
Alonso's fourth home run of the season followed three unanswered runs from the Athletics, and his three RBI were the difference in Friday's game. The Mets bullpen also collected 2.2 scoreless innings before Edwin Diaz allowed two runs in the ninth before finally closing it out.
Here are the takeaways...
-Entering Friday, there have already been 18 home runs in Sutter Health Park, and the Mets added to that total. Brandon Nimmo demolished a 92 mph fastball from lefty JP Sears that went 400 feet to give the Mets a 1-0 lead in the second.
The Mets would add on in the inning with back-to-back one-out doubles from Luisangel Acuña and Luis Torrens. Alonso added another run in the fifth with a booming double that scored Juan Soto from first. Alonso's extra-base hit chased Sears who threw 101 pitches in just 4.2 innings -- he did pick up seven strikeouts though.
-After the Mets' offense squandered some opportunities to score runs, they would finally break things open in the sixth. Jose Siri (walk), Francisco Lindor (reached on error) and Soto (walk) loaded the bases with one out before Alonso hit a sac fly to increase the Mets' lead to 4-1. Starling Marte, starting at DH, blasted a two-run double to give the road team a nice five-run cushion, one Griffin Canning would not be able to hold.
-After a 1-2-3 first inning, the Athletics would square up Griffin Canning in the second. A leadoff walk was followed by a single but Jacob Wilson swung at the first pitch and grounded into a double play. Miguel Andujar hit a sharp single into right field to score the Athletics' first run, and Gio Urshela followed with a single of his own. Max Muncy -- unrelated to the Dodgers' Max Muncy -- then hit a sharp liner toward Nimmo in left and the outfielder lept up to snag the ball before falling backward, averting potential disaster for the third out.
Brent Rooker smashed a one-out triple that missed being a home run by just a few feet in the third. Rooker was running on contact when Tyler Soderstrom hit a hard grounder to first base but Alonso quickly threw it home to get Rooker out by a large margin.
There have only been four games where a Mets starter recorded an out in the sixth inning, and Friday was the fifth but it unraveled quickly for Canning. He entered the sixth with a 6-1 lead, but the Athletics began to hit him. Shea Langeliers led off with a double before Wilson's one-out single drove in the Athletics catcher. Andujar then followed with a laster down the left-field line for a two-run homer that cut the Mets' lead to two runs.
Canning's night was done after that. He threw 86 pitches (53 strikes) across 5.1 innings allowing four runs on seven hits and four walks while striking out three batters.
-Reed Garrett was first out of the bullpen and he had trouble in the sixth. After getting a strikeout, he allowed a double and two walks to load the bases for Soderstrom. The big lefty lined a bullet (109.3 mph off the bat) on a 3-2 pitch into right field, but right at a waiting Soto to end the threat.
The rest of the Mets bullpen would steady the ship. Ryne Stanek dominated in a 1-2-3 seventh and ...
