QUEENS, NY — Juan Soto’s first two Citi Field home runs were not enough to scratch out a series win for the Mets, who fell for a second-straight game to the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-2 on Wednesday afternoon.
After 15 home games without a round-tripper in his new home, Soto left the yard in consecutive at-bats — first taking the previously untouchable Zac Gallen out of the yard in the bottom of the sixth to make it a 2-1 game before taking reliever Kevin Ginkel out to nearly the same spot in right-center-field in the bottom of the eighth to make it a 3-2 game.
“It feels good always to come through to help the team, it just feels good,” Soto said. “When I’m hitting the ball well that way, I feel things start getting better for me at the plate. I start seeing the ball better and deeper. That’s a good sign.”
The Mets (21-11) nearly completed their comeback in that eighth inning when Pete Alonso walked and Jesse Winker doubled to put men on second and third with one out, but Ginkel rebounded with strikeouts of Mark Vientos and Brandon Nimmo to keep Arizona’s slim lead intact.
“I feel like Vientos missed a couple pitches in the strike zone and then they made him chase,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Nimmo, I think he missed a 3-1 fastball and just missed… I don’t know if he was sitting breaking ball on that 3-2 where he took that fastball right down the middle [for strike three].”
Arizona’s Geraldo Perdomo, whose pinch-hit two-run single in the seventh inning of Tuesday night’s win over New York, hit a solo home run in the seventh. Tim Tawa added a solo insurance shot of his own in the ninth off Reed Garrett to make it a two-run game.
Gallen, who allowed one run on Soto’s sixth-inning blast and just one other hit across six innings to go with eight strikeouts and a pair of walks, picked up the win in an abbreviated pitcher’s duel with Kodai Senga.
“He was locating his pitches, and he was throwing his curveball right at the bottom of every corner of the plate,” Soto said of Gallen. “He was executing, making great pitches, making good decisions of what he’s going to throw, and that’s why he’s one of the best.”
The victim of a high pitch count, the Mets’ starter could only last four innings, allowing one run on five hits with six strikeouts and three walks.
He had gotten through three scoreless innings with all six of those punchouts while working around a bases-loaded jam in the third inning before running into problems in the fourth.
Senga allowed an RBI single to Alek Thomas, which scored Eugenio Suarez from second. Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who was on first after singling, attempted to advance to third and would have been thrown out with ease by cut-off man Jeff McNeil, but the throw glanced off his back.
Another walk to Tawa loaded the bases for a second-straight inning, but he got Jose Herrera to pop out before Nimmo made a leaping catch at the left-field fence to rob Corbin Carroll of extra bases and potentially three RBI.
Senga’s day was finished after the escape at 87 pitches.
“I didn’t have a great feel overall today,” Senga said. “The good pitches were good, but the poor ones were significantly poor.”
Making his Mets debut in the fifth, the left-handed Genesis Cabrera — called up following the injuries to southpaw relievers AJ Minter and Danny Young — walked Pavin Smith and gave up a double to Josh Naylor that ricocheted off the top of the wall and stayed in the park to put men on second and third with one out.
Max Kranick inherited both runners and allowed one to score on a Suarez sacrifice fly to double Arizona’s lead.
Soto broke his Citi Field drought in the bottom of the sixth inning to pull the Mets within one when he jumped on Gallen’s 0-1 cutter up in the zone and sent it the other way over the left-center-field fence.
“I have my plan against him. For me, I try to see and try to do damage with the mistakes,” Soto said. “He made one mistake, and I just didn’t miss it.”
Following Perdomo’s home run in the seventh, Soto struck again in the eighth when he sent Ginkel’s 3-2 fastball 109.6 mph and 399 feet into the seats in right-center.
