There was a lot to like about tonight’s relatively smooth and easy 10-3 victory over the Giants at Oracle Park in San Francisco. The Mets’ offense, which had been floundering, finally had a big day. Marcus Semien hit his first home run as a Met and Francisco Alvarez went deep twice. Semien and Bo Bichette both had a three-hit game. Nolan McLean was brilliant—perfect through his first five. Much like McLean’s performance, it was almost a perfect night…except for one very significant wrinkle. Juan
Soto left the game in the bottom of the first inning after experiencing calf tightness running the bases in the top of the inning. So instead of being able to breathe easy and freely enjoy a nice rebound win after last night’s disastrous game, some anxiety and foreboding hangs like a specter over this victory.
Nonetheless, this was otherwise a relatively stress-free game. The Mets got on the board right away in the first against Tyler Mahle. Francisco Lindor led off the game with a single and Juan Soto followed with a single of his own. Bo Bichette then laced the Mets’ third consecutive base hit to drive in Lindor for the game’s first run. Luis Robert then walked to load the bases with nobody out and with one run already in, it looked like the Mets were poised for a huge first inning, much like they achieved on Opening Day. However, Brett Baty grounded into a 1-2-3 double play to take some of the air out of the rally. The Mets did manage to scratch out another run on a well-struck Marcus Semien single over the shortstop to double their lead to 2-0, but it should have been a bigger inning—both because of Baty’s double play and because Robert didn’t run on contact on Semien’s hit, despite the two-out situation, so he was unable to score from second on the play. Still, the Mets found themselves two runs to the good early and Nolan McLean took the mound with some run support already behind him.
It turned out that two runs was plenty of run support for McLean on this night, as he had all of his pitches working and was throwing some absolutely filthy stuff at Giants hitters all evening. In fact, McLean did not allow a single baserunner until the sixth inning when he issued back-to-back walks to start the inning. It was clear McLean was tiring at that point, partially because—to the credit of the Giants lineup—there were eight full counts against McLean in the first 17 batters he faced. Those walks came back to bite McLean, but he was still fantastic tonight. If you did not watch this game live because you are not a night owl sicko like I am, you should do yourself a favor and watch the clip of the pitch McLean threw to strike out Heliot Ramos to end the fifth inning. You can thank me later.
Meanwhile, the Mets added three more runs in the top of the fourth—all via the long ball. Mark Vientos singled to lead off the inning and Marcus Semien blasted a two-run homer to dead center—an impressive feat at Oracle Park—for his first Mets home run. Then with one out, Francisco Alvarez followed with a pretty prodigious blast of his own to extend the Mets’ lead to 5-0.
Unfortunately for McLean, both of those walks he issued in the sixth would come around to score. After recording the first out of the inning on a Jerar Encarnacion fly out to right, Willy Adames launched a ground rule double to end the no-hitter and the shutout. That chased McLean from the game and after 93 pitches, he made way for Brooks Raley, who did his job, striking out Rafael Devers and retiring Luis Arraez on a ground ball to first. However, Francisco Alvarez failed to handle one of Raley’s pitches and the Giants’ second run scored on the passed ball. But Alvarez would immediately make up for the run he cost his team, going deep again to lead off the seventh. The Mets piled on that inning against JT Brubaker in his second inning of work. After Alvarez’s second homer, Francisco Lindor—becoming quite the on-base machine in the early going—walked. Tyrone Taylor then struck out for the first out, but Bo Bichette doubled, advancing Lindor to third. Luis Robert drove him in with a single, which knocked Brubaker out of the game. Matt Gage came in for the Giants and struck out Brett Baty for the second out, but then Mark Vientos singled to plate the Mets’ eighth run.
Huascar Brazobán worked around a two-out hit by Heliot Ramos (the Giants’ second hit of the evening) to pitch a scoreless bottom of the seventh. Unlike his other recent appearances, this game proved to be an appropriate situation for Richard Lovelady, who gave up a run in the eighth on a Jerar Encarnacion double and a Luis Arraez RBI single. But luckily this time Lovelady had plenty of margin for error and the Mets added yet more insurance off Erik Miller in the top of the ninth. Luis Robert got things started with a walk and Brett Baty, who was one of the few Mets having a rough night at the plate, doubled him in. Marcus Semien notched his third hit of the night, advancing Baty to third and Baty scored on a Carson Benge grounder to second to put the Mets’ run total into double digits. Luis García polished off the lopsided victory with a scoreless ninth inning, working around a one-out single by Heliot Ramos.
Thus, the Mets snap their three-game losing streak in resounding fashion, but on a night when the bats finally broke out, concern remains for the lineup’s most potent threat; we should find out more about the severity of Juan Soto’s calf injury in the coming days.
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Big Mets winner: Marcus Semien, +20.2% WPA
Big Mets loser: Brett Baty, -15.1% WPA
Mets pitchers: +17.3% WPA
Mets hitters: +32.7% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Bo Bichette’s RBI single in the first, +12.3% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Willy Adames’ ground rule double to break up Nolan McLean’s no-hitter in the sixth, -7.7% WPA
