The offense from Saturday’s game against the Miami Marlins was more so what the Mets were envisioning from their group when they entered this expectation-filled season.
On a day where the team honored Bobby Valentine and Lee Mazzilli by inducting them into the Mets Hall of Fame, New York pounded out 10 hits and scored six runs en route to a 6-1 series-clinching win against the Marlins to send the large crowd on hand at Citi Field home with a smile – and not just because they heard Valentine’s speech before the game.
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The big hits came off the bats of Jared Young and Hayden Senger, who each hit solo home runs to extend the Mets’ lead in the sixth and seventh innings. However, New York built its lead even before that with a three-run fourth inning with Mark Vientos getting it all started with a ringing double off the left-field wall to drive in the game’s first two runs. The Mets were off from there, scoring another on Marcus Semien’s RBI single.
Vientos wouldn’t get another hit the rest of the game, but the damage had already been done and gave the first baseman two straight games with an extra-base hit after hitting a mammoth home run on Friday night for his only hit.
“It’s good to see guys like Vientos have good back-to-back games,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “When he’s on he can carry us. We saw that in 2024.”
The three-run fourth inning, in particular, was also nice to see because it came right on the heels of a third inning that went terribly for New York.
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After Semien led off the inning with a double and Vidal Brujan reached first base on a sacrifice bunt that resulted in a throwing error by the third baseman, the Mets had runners on first and third with nobody out. Instead of letting Senger swing the bat, New York elected to have the catcher lay down a safety squeeze bunt which led to Semien being thrown out at home.
Not long after, Brujan was caught trying to steal third base before Carson Benge ended the inning by striking out and leaving the Mets with nothing after an inning that started so promisingly.
“It’s a hard game. They’re gonna struggle at times,” Mendoza said. “You continue to stay positive, you continue to trust your players that at some point they’re gonna come through.”
Fortunately for the manager, they came through an inning later.
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But it wasn’t just the fourth inning, or even Saturday as a whole, where New York’s offense came through. Over their last three games, that coincides with three straight wins, the Mets have scored 19 runs while doing their best to make everybody forget about the disastrous three games in Miami where they scored two runs combined.
What a difference a week can make.
“It’s just good to see some of the guys here playing with some confidence, playing loose and having fun and picking each other up,” Mendoza said. “I think we continue to have good at-bats up and down the lineup… There’s a lot of good things going on offensively top to bottom.”
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