Soto his an absolute shot in the fourth, and the Mets went on to win.
The Mets will have to figure out how to get their starters past the fifth inning effectively and score runs on a more consistent basis, but this afternoon in Kansas City, an absolute blast of a two-run home run by Juan Soto in the top of the fourth inning led the way to give the team its second win in as many days over the Royals.
Through his first five innings of work, Frankie Montas looked the best he’s looked thus far in his handful of starts with the Mets. He didn’t allow any runs in those innings, gave up just two hits, and didn’t walk anybody. But he gave up back-to-back doubles to begin the bottom of the sixth, plating a run that cut the Mets’ lead in half.
Thankfully, Reed Garrett came in and managed to escape the inning without further damage—despite an errant pickoff attempt that Brett Baty failed to catch, allowing the inherited runner on second to advance to third. Garrett retired all three batters he faced on a pop up, a ground out, and a fly ball out.
It wasn’t exactly smooth sailing for Chris Devenski in the seventh, but he worked around a leadoff walk and a one-out hit-by-pitch to throw a scoreless frame, stranding runners on the corners at the end of the inning.
And with the lead still at just one run to start the bottom of the eighth, Carlos Mendoza wisely turned to Edwin Díaz to face the top of the Royals’ order. That wound up being a pivotal and controversial half-inning. Díaz issued a walk to Bobby Witt Jr. with one out. Witt attempted to steal second, and he looked to do so safely, certainly beating the throw in the process. But the Mets challenged the safe call at second on the grounds that Witt had come off the bag at some point during his slide. Despite the angles that were available on the SNY broadcast not showing any clear-cut evidence that Witt lost contact with second base while Francisco Lindor wisely kept his tag applied, MLB’s replay center overturned the call.
Díaz retired the next batter he faced to finish a scoreless eighth. And in the top of the ninth, Pete Alonso doubled to deep right field before Jeff McNeil drove him in for a vital insurance run. Díaz stayed in the game and—thanks in part to a fine defensive play by Tyrone Taylor in center field—threw a perfect ninth inning to secure a six-out save and give the Mets a series win with a chance to complete a sweep.
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Box scores
Win Probability Added
FanGraphs
Big Mets winner: Edwin Díaz, +24.2% WPA
Big Mets loser: Tyrone Taylor, -6.7% WPA
Mets pitchers: +59.4% WPA
Mets hitters: -9.4% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Juan Soto hits a two-run home run in the fourth, +15.4% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Jonathan India hits a run-scoring double in the sixth, -15.2% WPA