Mets sweep Angels to move back into first place as Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso break out of slumps
Francisco Lindor of the Mets reacts after his fourth-inning RBI base hit against the Los Angeles Angels at Citi Field on Wednesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Some of the Mets’ biggest stars began to burn bright again on Wednesday afternoon.
Francisco Lindor broke out of the longest hitless drought of his career and Pete Alonso pulled out of a nosedive of his own with his first home run since July 8 as the Mets completed a three-game sweep of the Angels with a 6-3 victory before 41,591 at Citi Field.
“We’re going to need those guys,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We know that they’re going through it, but they’re too good, man. They’re both] too good of a hitter, too good of a player, and I’m glad that they were able to come through for us today.”
The Mets (59-44) moved back into first place after the Red Sox defeated the Phillies Wednesday night, and now take a four-game winning streak into their final West Coast trip of the season with series against the Giants and Padres, two teams in the thick of a close battle for NL wild cards.
“We’ve got six really big games coming up,” Alonso said. “Both teams are really, really good, so we’ve got to stay in it and fight the fight every day.”
Starter Sean Manaea, whose pitching was a key element of the club’s run to the NL Championship Series last season, made his third appearance since coming off the injured list and took one more step toward top-of-rotation form. He pitched five innings of one-run ball and picked up his first win of the season.
After Manaea struck out the side in the first, Brandon Nimmo opened the bottom of the frame with his 19th home run, a 395-footer into the Mets’ bullpen in right-center.
Lindor and Alonso both broke out in a four-run rally in the third that put the Mets ahead 5-1. Lindor ended an 0-for-31 slump with the first of his two run-scoring singles to give the Mets a 2-1 lead.
Two batters later, Alonso put an emphatic punctuation mark on the rally by ending a 2-for-33 skid by crushing Jake Eder’s 1-and-1 fastball for a towering three-run home run. The blast went 439 feet and caromed off the railing at the front of the second deck in leftfield.
“I get frustrated with myself when I go through stretches like this,” Lindor said. “It’s like non-competitive at-bats. Like I am an out walking to the plate. That’s not to the standard we have here.
“The past couple of games, I felt like my at-bats got better,” he added. “I made the pitchers work a little bit more and they were more productive outs. That, [in] combination with winning, was a great recipe.”
“It happens — they’re not going to be perfect,” Mendoza said of Lindor’s slump. “They’re going to struggle and the good ones, they’ll find a way.”
Mendoza was asked prior to the game about Alonso’s slump and replied, “Pete’s [been] late. He’s missing good pitches to hit and not recognizing [pitches] at times.”
The home run was a no-doubter and he added a single to right-centerfield in the seventh inning.
“Hitting a big homer there with guys on base . . . felt really great,” Alonso said. “Honestly, I’m kind of more satisfied with that inside-out single. If I’m staying inside the ball and hitting to the big part of the field, I’m in a really good spot.”
Manaea didn’t return from an oblique strain suffered during spring training until the day before the All-Star break. In his first two appearances, he’d only gone 3 1⁄3 innings (in relief) and four innings (in his first start on July 18) and hadn’t surpassed 69 pitches.
He gave the Mets a bit more length against the Angels by going the five innings and throwing a season-high 82 pitches. He gave up two hits — including a Mike Trout home run — and walked two while striking out five.
“I didn’t feel great out there, but good enough to get the job done,” Manaea said. “Stamina-wise, I’m just not fully there yet. Everything feels good, it’s just building [stamina] up for me.”
Relievers Huascar Brazoban, Jose Butto and Brooks Raley got the next eight outs before Edwin Diaz came on for the final four outs and his 21st save. But the quartet dealt with plenty of traffic.
Butto, back Wednesday off the IL (undisclosed illness), gave up two runs. Raley extricated the Mets from trouble in the seventh by getting Trout to hit into an inning-ending groundout with two men on but issued a leadoff walk in the eighth. Diaz got them out of that jam by whiffing Luis Rengifo on a called third strike so questionable that Angels manager Ray Montgomery got tossed for arguing it. He opened the ninth with his second hit-by-pitch of the game, a 96-mph fastball off Chris Taylor’s batting helmet, but retired the next three batters.
Notes & quotes: Reliever Justin Garza was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse to make room on the active roster for Butto . . . Paul Blackburn (shoulder) is likely to need at least one more minor-league rehab start before he is ready to return . . . Jesse Winker (back) is yet to begin baseball activities, Mendoza said.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
