The San Francisco Giants were in June and the Mets one of the worst. But Saturday at Citi Field, the roles reversed and the Mets defeated the Giants 4-1.
Typically it’s the Mets’ starting pitchers who can’t get past the third time through the order or even the second. This time, it was Anthony DeSclafani who exited after giving up three solo home runs in the third inning to put the Mets up 3-0. This came after the Colts Neck, New Jersey native allowed only two in the month of June.
Francisco Alvarez hit the first one of the inning. It was his 13th of the season, which ties him with Travis d’Arnaud for the most home runs by a Mets rookie catcher (2014). It also snapped a 15-game homerless drought for the backstop.
“I’ve been working a lot with the hitting coaches over the last couple weeks and today we spoke more than normal,” Alvarez said. “We put together a plan of what to look for and [hitting coach Jeremy Barnes] gave me this goal and this point of emphasis at the plate. I was able to execute it.”
The adjustment was in his hips and allowed him to drive a sinker over the center field wall.
With two outs, Brandon Nimmo pulled one over the right field fence for his fourth in the last five games (12 total), and Francisco Lindor followed with one of his own to right-center field (17 total). It was the hardest-hit home run of Nimmo’s career (111.5 MPH off the bat) and came exactly seven years after he hit his first big league homer, something that did not go unnoticed by the outfielder.
“It’s kind of fitting,” Nimmo said.
DeSclafani (4-8) had been hitless to that point for the Giants (36-47). Three earned runs came on three hits and he struck out three hitters over three innings. Sean Manaea replaced him in the fourth and promptly walked Pete Alonso. After Daniel Vogelbach looked at strike three, Tommy Pham smacked a double to left field to put the Mets up 4-0.
Justin Verlander went seven strong, holding San Francisco to only one unearned run on five hits.
“He was the difference today,” said manager Buck Showalter. “Goes without saying.”
The run came in the seventh inning when Alonso, for the second day in a row, made an error that would later allow former Mets third baseman J.D. Davis to score. Alonso overthrew Francisco Lindor trying to complete a 3-6-3 double play. Patrick Bailey, who one night prior hit the go-ahead homer off David Robertson, reached safely on the fielder’s choice and Davis reached third. The Mets then turned a double play, this one of the 4-6-3 variety. but Davis was able to score on it as well.
Verlander used 29 pitches in the seventh but was able to weather the storm and hand it over to the bullpen.
It was a relatively easy outing for Verlander after a season of tough ones.
“I’ve felt like I’ve had to work extremely hard for every single out and there haven’t been many easy outs that have come my way,” Verlander said. “I don’t think that has to do with luck. I think that has to do with me and the deception of my pitches… But [today] I had some weak balls in put in play, bad swings on certain pitches and got a couple easy outs. Then, all of a sudden the couple of hard ones that are hit or find a hole are not that big of a deal.”
This time, the bullpen held up. Drew Smith and Adam Ottavino picked up the eighth and ninth with relative ease. Ottavino converted his sixth save of the season.
Verlander (3-4) gave the Mets a big performance to bring them to nine games under .500 (37-46). The one run was unearned and he allowed only five hits and one walk while striking out six.
“I don’t know if you’ll ever hear me say I’m there, but this was definitely a huge step in the right direction,” Verlander said. “Just trying to build off that momentum.”
The Mets haven’t won two consecutive games since June 14 and 16 when they took one game against the and the opening game of the series against the Houston Astros. Before that, you’d have to go back to the end of May when they swept the Philadelphia Phillies. They’ll get a chance to build off that momentum Verlander mentioned Sunday on national TV when they conclude the series with ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.
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