In “M-V-Pete” they trust.
Pete Alonso’s wild ride through what has been a magical Mets season to this point included another grand performance Friday night that left the Citi Field faithful singing his praises.
The slugging first baseman had never hit a grand slam before 2022, but it’s clear this isn’t just another season for Alonso. On this night he smacked his second grand slam this year in leading the Mets to a 10-4 victory over the Marlins.
Alonso’s slam in the sixth, following an overturned call that might very well have been otherwise ruled a double play (if not a triple play), punctuated an inning in which the Mets sent 11 batters to the plate and scored seven runs. The blast gave Alonso 19 homers (which leads the NL) and 63 RBIs (which leads MLB). Alonso, in 435 career games, became the second fastest to reach 125 homers in major league history. Ryan Howard needed just 405 games to reach that mark. The previous second fastest was the Yankees’ Aaron Judge, in 447 games.
Francisco Lindor treated his mother Maria (who had never seen her son play in person previously for the Mets) with a three-run homer in the first inning, the loudest hit of the night. Lindor’s family surprised the shortstop by bringing his mom, who is confined to a wheelchair after a recent health episode, to the game. Francisco and Maria embraced outside the clubhouse before the first pitch.
The Mets also received a solid performance from Carlos Carrasco, who allowed three earned runs on eight hits with seven strikeouts and two walks over 6 ¹/₃ innings. With the victory, the Mets moved 5 ¹/₂ games ahead of the Braves in the NL East after Atlanta had its 14-game winning streak snapped with a loss to the Cubs.
In the game-deciding sixth inning, Luis Guillorme’s long fly to left-center was ruled a catch by Bryan De La Cruz, but the Mets won a replay challenge that showed the Marlins center fielder had trapped the ball against the fence. Jeff McNeil had tagged up at second and moved to third on the play and Mark Canha had advanced to second without tagging up. At minimum, Canha would have been called out if the play had been upheld.
But Guillorme’s long single loaded the bases and J.D. Davis smacked an RBI single to right that extended the Mets’ lead to 4-1 against Pablo Lopez.
Tommy Nance retired Brandon Nimmo for the second out in the sixth, but the Mets weren’t finished: Starling Marte walked to force in a run and Lindor was hit by a pitch, giving the Mets a 6-1 lead.
Alonso then jumped on the first pitch and his blast just cleared the 358-foot sign in left. Alonso circled the bases to chants of “M-V-Pete” and took a curtain call from the first-base dugout.
In the first inning, De La Cruz dropped Marte’s routine fly ball to center after Nimmo had singled leading off. Lindor followed with a 440-foot rocket to center field that left his bat at 108.2 mph, delivering three runs. The homer was Lindor’s first since June 4, three days after he fractured his right middle finger by slamming it in his hotel suite’s double doors in Los Angeles.
De La Cruz homered leading off the fifth to pull the Marlins within 3-1. It was the third homer allowed in two games by Carrasco, who had five straight starts without allowing one, beginning on May 15. De La Cruz jumped on a full-count, 95-mph fastball and cleared the left-field fence for his third homer of the season.
Carrasco escaped trouble in the sixth, retiring three straight batters after Jon Berti singled leading off the inning and stole second against Tomas Nido. In the fourth, Carrasco allowed two singles but avoided trouble by retiring Willians Astudillo and Jacob Stallings.