The New York Mets ambushed Los Angeles Angels pitching early, allowing them to finish a 6-3 win and sweep on Wednesday afternoon.
Francisco Lindor ended an 0-for-31 skid to support home runs by Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo. The Mets completed a sweep of the Halos and have now won four straight to suggest they are coming out of a heinous stretch, which saw them go 10-20 in their previous 30 games.
Starting pitcher Sean Manaea came out of the gates hot, striking out the side to start his afternoon. In the bottom half, Nimmo got the scoring started with a leadoff home run into the Mets’ bullpen. His 19th homer of the year put New York ahead 1-0.
Staked to the lead, Manaea got into and out of trouble in the second, escaping a bases-loaded jam with two outs. Angels reliever Sam Bachman also faced some trouble in the bottom half, allowing back-to-back singles to put runners on first and second. However, a double play and a pop-up enabled him to make it through unscathed.
The Angels got on the board in the top of the third, with Mike Trout taking Manaea opposite field to the Angels’ bullpen. His 18th of the year tied the game up at one.
However, the tie was short-lived, as the Mets ambushed the next man for the Angels, Jake Eder. A walk to Tyrone Taylor and plunking of Nimmo got the Mets in business, bringing Lindor to the plate. After suffering a career-worst 0-for-31 stretch, he roped an RBI single to left to make it 2-1 New York.
Two batters later, Alonso inched closer to history with a mammoth, three-run homer to the second deck in left center. His 22nd of the year and 248th of his career made it 5-1 Mets. The first baseman now sits four round-trippers shy of tying Darryl Strawberry’s franchise record.
New York continued to add on in the bottom of the fourth, with Lindor getting his second RBI single in as many trips to make it 6-1 Mets.
Alonso came into the game batting 8-for-50 in his last 15 games, but broke out with two hits in the win. He and Lindor were able to break out to give the Mets enough offense to secure the win.
“We’re going to need those guys,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We know that they’re going through it, but they’re too good of hitters, they’re too good of players, and I’m glad that they were able to come through for us today.”
Manaea rolled once given the big lead, retiring his last seven batters faced on the day after the Trout homers. He ended his outing with five innings of one-run ball, allowing two hits and two walks with five strikeouts.
Huascar Brazoban pitched a scoreless sixth inning of work, but Jose Buttó struggled in his return to the Injured List. After allowing singles to Kevin Newman and Travis d’Arnaud, both came across to score an RBI groundout and a double, respectively. Buttó got only two outs before being relieved for Brooks Raley, who got Trout to ground out to extinguish the fire.
The Angels were able to keep the game close thanks to Eder’s efforts. Despite allowing runs in the third and fourth inning rallies, he ended his day with just the five runs allowed on seven hits and a walk over six innings with seven punchouts.
Los Angeles continued to push the envelope in the eighth, putting a runner on first and forcing Edwin Diaz into a four-out save opportunity. After hitting Logan O’Hoppe, Diaz escaped trouble on a controversial strikeout of Luis Rengifo, which got acting manager Ray Montgomery ejected from the game.
In the ninth, Diaz hit the leadoff batter Chris Taylor, but worked out the yips to retire the next three batters to lock down the save.
The Mets improve to 59-44 with the win, while the Angels fall to 49-53.
New York will head to California for a six-game road trip starting on Friday against the San Francisco Giants. Mets right Clay Holmes will oppose San Francisco’s Logan Webb. The first pitch is at 10:10 p.m. Eastern on July 25.
