Mets snap losing streak as Brett Baty leads way against Red Sox
The Mets' Brett Baty watches his single against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Wednesday in Boston. Credit: AP/Charles Krupa
BOSTON – Mets manager Carlos Mendoza’s rendition of the Soto Shuffle didn’t go exactly as planned in the early goings Wednesday night, but the Baty Box Step worked just fine.
In an attempt to shake the Mets out of the offensive malaise that prompted their season-high three game losing streak, Mendoza made some major lineup changes to the top of the order, dropping Juan Soto and Pete Alonso one spot each, to the three and four slots.
It took a while for those moves to prove fruitful in their 5-1 win over the Red Sox at Fenway Park, but Brett Baty more than picked up the slack.
Baty drove in three of the Mets five runs, going 2-for-3 and 2-for-2 with runners in scoring position – a deficiency that’s plagued the team for most of the year, but particularly of late. His RBI single against starter Garrett Crochet plated one run in the third, and his bases-loaded single in the seventh scored two more, with him pumping his fist as he rounded first.
“It’s just a big point in the game,” Baty said. “These last couple days, we’ve had trouble scoring runs and I thought it was big for our pitchers and our team, so I let out a little emotion there…It was huge to go back [into the dugout] and have the excitement of the team and the guys and everything. I felt like we were in a good spot.”
The top four hitters in the starting lineup, meanwhile – Francisco Lindor, Starling Marte, Soto and Alonso – went a combined 3-for-16 with five strikeouts and a pair of walks. Soto struck out three times, something he’s only done 21 times in 985 career games (one of those was a career-high four-strikeout game), but also drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the seventh.
Lindor hit a solo homer over the Green Monster against Sean Newcomb in the ninth; it was the Mets’ first homer in seven games. They’ve won the last 24 games in which Lindor has homered.
After 17 1/3 innings without a hit with runners in scoring position, Baty exorcised the ghost to get them on the board in the second. Mark Vientos led off the inning with a walk and Luis Torrens quickly followed up with a double to land Vientos on third. The Mets looked destined for more disillusionment after two first-pitch outs, but then came Baty.
The third baseman, who generally sits against lefties, was able to line an 0-and-1 fastball to center to give the Mets the 1-0 lead. Since getting called up from Triple-A on May 5, Baty has 10 RBIs in 13 games.
“That’s really good to see,” Mendoza said. “Especially the at bats against Crochet, the first one, picking us up big time…It’s just really good to see one of your young players perform and continue to play with confidence.
The Mets came into the day 4-for-43 (.093) with 44 runners left in scoring position over their previous six games, having lost five of those. They were 3-for-12 with RISP Wednesday and left eight on.
Tylor Megill, who had a 7.23 ERA over his last four starts, returned to his early-season form, mowing down the Red Sox right up until a hairy, tough-luck fifth inning. Megill allowed one run on four hits with a walk, and matched a career high with 10 strikeouts over 4 2/3 innings. He coaxed 11 swing and misses, five on his lively fastball.
Nick Sogard led off that fifth by hitting a ball in front of the plate. Instead of opting to let Torrens, who had the better angle, field it, Megill took it himself and then threw it away – a ball that was ruled an infield single.
One batter later, Carlos Narvaez hit a ball up the middle that Lindor was just able to knock down, but his no-look, desperation shuffle to Acuna went wide, also ruled a single. Megill then hit Rafaela to load the bases for Jarren Duran, who blasted a dead-red fastball 366-feet to Fenway’s cavernous right-field warning track to tie the game at 1.
A walk to Rafael Devers ended Megill’s night, but Huascar Brazoban, as he’s done so often this season, snuffed the flames. His nine-pitch battle with Alex Bregman ended with Bregman striking out swinging on a full-count 95.6 mph sinker. Brazoban pitched a scoreless 2 1/3 innings, allowing one hit with no walks and four strikeouts to lower his ERA to 0.90.
The Mets loaded the bases against Liam Hendricks in the seventh to again summon Baty, who lined a 2-and-2 hanging sinker to left to give the Mets the 3-1 lead. Soto, also with the bases loaded, tacked on a sacrifice fly.
“Guys, when they’re going through stretches like this, they want to come through so bad,” Mendoza said. “At times it takes a little longer than we would like, but it was good to see those guys today not panicking – not that we have – but just continue to play your game."
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
