For one glorious inning against an underwhelming opponent, a Mets lineup that has sputtered for most of this season had all the answers.
It became a party, and by the time it concluded a “10” had been crammed into the sixth-inning scoring column. Call it a perfect 10.
Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso fired the cannon-shots, two homers totaling seven runs that led the Mets’ 13-4 sinking of the Pirates at Citi Field on Friday. The game endured a 41-minute rain delay with the Mets batting in the eighth inning and leading by 10 runs.
Lindor unloaded with the Mets’ first grand slam of the season, punctuating a sixth inning that only ended after 13 batters had come to the plate. Alonso’s three-run homer was the Mets’ other monster smash in the frame.
“It just sucks getting booed,” Lindor said, when asked about his serious expression as he rounded the bases. “I was just listening to see if I was going to get booed, it’s that simple.
“When I hit the home run I was thinking, ‘Look around, see how the fans react.’ It was pretty cool to see the fans reacting.”
After four straight All-Star appearances Lindor (who is enduring a career-worst season) will be excluded from the game this year. It’s a realization that has humbled him.
“It’s a feeling that you don’t want to have again,” Lindor said. “You want to be an All-Star every single year. You want to help the team win every day and you want to make it to October. But an All-Star means you had a good first half. … the All-Star game is the greatest event of the summer, but I didn’t deserve to be an All-Star. I am nowhere near being an All-Star.”
The Mets entered the night 29th in MLB in scoring at 3.65 runs per game — the Pirates were the only team behind them — but with Brandon Nimmo’s return atop the lineup in the past week, they have appeared more formidable.
Nimmo reached base twice in the sixth inning alone, and three times overall, as part of the onslaught. Jonathan Villar slugged two homers to become the 10th player in franchise history to go deep from both sides of the plate in the same game.
“I always think we’re going to connect at-bats like we did tonight,” manager Luis Rojas said. “It happened. The key homers. I feel the offense is going to swing the bats like this.”
Most of the damage occurred against Pirates starter JT Brubaker and reliever Sam Howard, who combined to surrender 11 of the runs. After Dominic Smith’s RBI single in the sixth put the Mets ahead 3-2, Alonso brought in three additional by clearing the fence in right-center for his 16th homer of the season.
But that was hardly the end of it. After the Mets loaded the bases on a single and two walks, Jose Peraza was hit by a pitch and Nimmo walked, extending the lead to 8-2. Lindor followed with an opposite-field grand slam to left-center.
“He has got power and he doesn’t need to pull the ball to hit a homer,” Rojas said.
The Mets (46-38) won for the fifth time in seven games, and their scoring total was one short of their season high, in a 14-1 rout of the Orioles on June 9. Over the next two days, the Mets and Pirates will play three games to close the first half.
In his shakiest home start of the season, Taijuan Walker, who was named to the NL All-Star team, allowed two earned runs on four hits with three walks over five innings. It followed an outing at Yankee Stadium in which Walker took a no-hitter into the sixth before surrendering a homer to Aaron Judge.
Walker plunked Michael Perez in the second inning to force in a run, but then pulled a great escape by striking out Jared Oliva and getting the pitcher, Brubaker, to hit into a double play. John Nogowski’s double, surrounded by two walks, loaded the bases with nobody out.
Adam Frazier delivered an RBI single against Walker in the fifth that tied it 2-2. Oliva doubled and stole third before Brubaker walked with one out. The leadoff hitter, Frazier further displayed why he’s such a hot commodity heading to the trade deadline, lining a single to right field for the run. Frazier began the night with a .326/.396/.461 slash line.
Villar homered leading off the third to get the Mets their first run. James McCann blooped a single with one out and scored on Nimmo’s double to right-center. Nimmo began the night with an .864 OPS since his return from the injured list last weekend.