The Mets overcame a rough start from Kodai Senga to snap their four-game losing streak.
Given the moves made at the deadline, the Mets had two hopes for how they would achieve success in the 2025 playoff push. First, the new-look bullpen would be strong enough to overcome any starting pitching struggles the team might endure. And second, the offense would rebound from its recent struggles enough to ensure the pitching doesn’t need to be perfect. Both of those hopes were on display in today’s game against the Giants, as the Mets had an offensive outburst the likes of which they hadn’t had in some time and the bullpen helped them overcome a rough starting pitching performance. The end result was an 12-6 win that put the Amazins back in first place in the National League East.
The Mets quickly jumped on the board against Giants starter Kai-Wei Teng after Kodai Senga tossed a scoreless first. Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor got on-base with a hit-by-pitch and walk, respectively, and following a Juan Soto strikeout, Pete Alonso hit a massive smash to left-center field for his 250th home run of his career (just two behind Darryl Strawberry for the all-time Mets lead), making it 3-0 Amazins.
Senga, unfortunately, would prove to be unable to hold onto the lead. In the top of the second, he quickly loaded the bases (on a double, hit-by-pitch, and walk) with nobody out. He managed to limit the damage for the moment by inducing a double play grounder off the bat of Grant McCray, surrendering one run on the play but wading off further disaster. He got out of that inning with just the one run, but he’d surrender the rest of the lead in the following frame, as he issued a two-out walk to Matt Chapman and then surrendered a two-run homer to Dominic Smith (just one day after the former Met had himself another back-breaking hit off his old team).
The game was thus tied, but it would only remain that way for one more inning. Jung-Hoo Lee greeted Senga in the top of the fourth by slapping a double to left, and two batters later McCray lined a hard shot off the right field ball. It was hit hard enough that Soto was able to fire it into second to limit it to just a single, but Lee (despite initially holding at second to tag) was able to score to give the Giants their first lead of the game.
That lead, too, did not last for long. Teng had managed to keep the Mets bats quiet since their three-run first, but new Met Cedric Mullins led off the bottom of the fourth with a single. He showed off a bit of his speed by stealing second after a Francisco Alvarez flyout to center, and Brett Baty walked to put runners on second and first with one out. Teng’s outing was done at that point, with Bob Melvin bringing in lefty Matt Gage from the bullpen. Nimmo greeted him by singling a ball just past the reach of second baseman Casey Schmitt, scoring Mullins to tie the game. Lindor then came up with runners on first and third, and he surprised the Giants by pushing a bunt towards the first base side. Smith came in to scoop up the ball and, despite having a play at home plate, turned to try to throw the ball to second. However, no one was covering there—just as nobody was covering first base. Thus, all runners reached safely, and the Mets had themselves the lead once again at 5-4.
Juan Soto grounded into a sharp double play to end the inning and prevent the Amazins from tacking on, and given the slim lead and Senga’s struggles (five hits, three walks, and four runs in four innings of work), Carlos Mendoza elected to go to his bullpen early. Reed Garrett was the first man on in the top of the fifth, and he recorded an easy 1-2-3 inning. He came back on for one out after the Mets went down quietly in the bottom of the frame, and then Mendoza turned to Gregory Soto with a couple of lefties due up. He surrendered a hit to one of them (a single to Lee), but recorded the next two outs to get out of the sixth. And in the bottom of the inning, the Mets added to their lead against new pitcher Spencer Bivens. With one out, Alvarez singled and Baty walked to put runners on second and first, and Nimmo followed with a single to left field to score a run to make it 6-4. Lindor saw that and decided he wanted an RBI single of his own, hitting a ground ball just past the reach of Schmitt at second (the second time we’ve written that in this recap, observant readers will note), and Baty scored from second to make it a three-run lead.
Tyler Rogers made his Mets debut in the top of the seventh, giving up a leadoff single but nothing else. And the bats fully broke the game open in the bottom of the frame. New pitcher Tristan Beck loaded the bases by walking Ronny Mauricio, hitting Mullins with a pitch, and surrendering a hard two-out single to Baty. Nimmo then recorded his third RBI single of the game, lining a ball to left to score Mauricio from third. With the bases still loaded, Lindor then smashed in the right field gap to score two more runs. And to add to Beck’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, while facing Soto he threw a wild pitch which scored Nimmo from third to give the Mets a commanding 11-4 lead.
While Ryan Helsley was initially warming up for the eighth, in light of the four-run seventh Mendoza elected to instead go with Brooks Raley, who tossed a scoreless frame to continue the bullpen’s strong afternoon. The Mets added one more run just for good measure in the bottom of the inning—Alonso led off with an opposite-field double and advanced to third when the throw to second went past the infield, and he then scored on a groundout to second by Jeff McNeil. Rico Garcia then came on to close things out in the ninth, and he suffered the first blemish that the bullpen experienced in the game game. McCray tripled to right to leadoff the inning, and after the Mets induced two foul pop-ups to bring the Giants down to their final out, Willy Adames hit a two-run homer to make it 12-6. But that would prove to be all, as Garcia struck out the final batter looking to end the game and snap the team’s four-game losing streak.
The Mets will hope that the performance of the offense and bullpen in today’s game are a sign of things to come. They will go for the series victory against San Francisco tomorrow with Frankie Montas facing off againt Carson Whisenhunt.
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FanGraphs
Big Mets winner: Brandon Nimmo, +32.4% WPA
Big Mets loser: Kodai Senga, -24.9% WPA
Mets pitchers: -5.9% WPA
Mets hitters: +55.9% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Pete Alonso three-run homer in the first, +22.3% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Dominic Smith two-run homer in the third, -21.2% WPA