QUEENS, NY — Carried by Brandon Nimmo’s three-run home run as a part of a four-run third inning, and Jonah Tong’s bounceback gem, the Mets took their first series since winning two of three from the Detroit Tigers from Sept. 1-3 by defeating the San Diego Padres 6-1 in Thursday afternoon’s rubber game at Citi Field.
Pete Alonso homered in a fourth consecutive game and drove in a pair of runs, while Juan Soto went 2-for-4 and drove in his 100th run of the season in the win.
The result momentarily pads the Mets’ (79-74) lead for the third and final Wild Card spot in the National League to two games over the Arizona Diamondbacks, who were off on Thursday.
“Every win gets us closer to the playoffs this time of year,” Nimmo said. “With only so many games we have left, every win we can get is huge. This is playoff baseball for us, and that’s a playoff team, and I thought we did a really good job against them this series.”
Tong, who allowed six runs in just two-thirds of an inning on Friday night against the Texas Rangers, befuddled Padres hitters for five innings, yielding just one run on four hits with eight strikeouts on 82 pitches.
“I threw a lot more strikes,” Tong said. “From the very first pitch, it helps to attack hitters. I did a better job of that this time.”
His lone blemish was self-inflicted after allowing a lead-off single to Fernando Tatis Jr. in the third. An errant throw on a pick-off moved the Padres star to second, then a wild pitch moved him to third. He came in to score on Luis Arraez’s sacrifice fly to tie the game at one apiece and cancel out Alonso’s first-inning, 445-foot blast to dead center field.
Alonso’s 37th home run of the season ensured that he became the third of 18 instances in franchise history in which a Mets batter hit a home run in four consecutive games. Richard Hidalgo holds the franchise record with five straight, set in 2004.
“I’m just happy that I’m seeing stuff to hit in the middle of the zone,” Alonso said. “With that being said, getting those pitches in the heart of plate and not missing them, I want to keep continuing to keep having quality at-bats, stay with every pitch, and capitalize on mistakes.”
Arraez’s sacrifice fly, however, was the first of eight successive outs — including a run of four straight strikeouts between the fourth and fifth innings — for Tong to end his day on a brilliant note.
“He got in a rhythm, he got ahead, and then he kept attacking,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “As opposed to just letting hitters get back in the counts where he really had to execute pitches. He wasn’t messing around.”
The Mets broke it open in the third after consecutive singles from Cedric Mullins and Francisco Lindor — the latter taking second on the throw from right field intended for third. Soto picked up his 100th RBI in his debut season with the Mets with a groundout to second, making this the fourth season of his already-storied career that he’s reached the century mark.
After Padres starter Randy Vasquez walked Alonso, southpaw Wandy Peralta was brought in to face Nimmo — a decision by San Diego skipper AJ Preller that backfired immediately. New York’s veteran outfielder jumped on a 1-2 inside changeup and cranked it 389 feet into the bullpens in right-center field to make it a 5-1 game.
Nimmo’s 24th home run of the season tied a career high set in 2023.
“He’s very tough on lefties,” Nimmo said of Peralta. “Just trying to get the job done, find the barrel to the ball. Usually, the way you do that is getting in the strike zone. I was able to do that there and get the job done with two strikes. Just tried to keep things simple… sometimes you come through, sometimes you don’t, but you miss all the shots you don’t take.”
Alonso plated the Mets’ sixth run of the afternoon with a sacrifice fly that scored Lindor, who walked to lead off the eighth and moved to third on Soto’s single.
