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Pete Alonso homers twice, Nolan McLean strikes out seven as Mets pound Tigers, 12-5

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Pete Alonso homers twice, Nolan McLean strikes out seven as Mets pound Tigers, 12-5

The Mets pounded the Tigers with four home runs, including two from Pete Alonso and a three-run shot by Luis Torrens, and Nolan McLean dealt six solid frames with seven strikeouts in a 12-5 win in Detroit on Tuesday night.

New York tallied 17 hits on the night, including three each by Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil, and Brett Baty, with Juan Soto adding two of his own, one going for his fifth home run in his last five games.

McLean, who didn't have his stuff early, got it together and has allowed just four runs in his first 26.1 innings and became the first pitcher in the majors in 11 years to win each of their first four big league starts.

The win moved the Mets to 75-64, good for 5.5 games behind the idle Philadelphia Phillies in the division race and 5.0 games ahead of the Cincinnati Reds for the final NL Wild Card spot after they fell to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Here are the key takeaways…

–  Alonso put the Mets ahead with two outs in the top half of the first inning, pounding a solo home run 435 feet (112.5 mph off the bat) high and deep to center field. Alonso got a belt-high 3-0 fastball right over the plate from Tigers starter Sawyer Gipson-Long and just smoked it. Alonso followed with a fine play in the bottom of the first, taking away a leadoff double with a diving stop on a ball down the first base line.

– Gipson-Long, making just his seventh big league start of his career, shrugged off the homer to get the next seven straight Mets, picking up his second strikeout of the night and needing just 37 pitches to get through three. That came to an end when Soto worked his 114th walk of the season to start the fourth, before he stole his 27th base of the year. (He had 25 steals in his previous 472 games before joining New York.)

Nimmo cracked a one-out single, but the ball was hit so hard on a line toward the second baseman, Soto had to freeze and could only advance to third. After Mark Vientos worked a four-pitch walk, McNeil dumped an RBI single into right and Cedric Mullins gave the Mets a 3-2 lead with a sac fly in foul territory down the right field line. 

After falling behind in the count 0-2, Torrens delivered the big hit, poking an up-and-away fastball the other way off the fair pole for a three-run home run. It was the catcher’s 5th homer of the year, 353 feet, to right to give him 29 RBI.

Baty dumped a single and stole second, but he was left stranded when Francisco Lindor struck out swinging.

– Against the Tigers' bullpen, McNeil nailed the first pitch of the sixth into left, giving him three-straight two-hit games. With one out, Torrens bounced a ball to first, but Spencer Torkelson’s throw toward second pulled the shortstop off the bag, and after a Carlos Mendoza challenge, the Mets had two runners on and then activated the double steal to get two in scoring position with one out. But Baty tapped out to the pitcher and Lindor went down on strikes with a wild swing at a ball that wasn’t even close. The shortstop began the game hitless in four times up, 0-for-2 with RISP, with three left on base.

– The Mets tacked on more runs in the seventh off reliever Chris Paddack as Soto stayed red-hot, driving a down in the zone changeup 408 feet into the seats in right field. He now has 37 homers on the year (and fifth in the last five games) and 91 RBI. Not to be outdone, Alosnso took a changeup down in the zone and drove it 388 feet into left for his second homer of the night. He now has 33 homers and 112 RBI for the year.

Nimmo added his third single of the night in four at-bats, and he hit the ball hard each time he came up, smashing balls 112.2 mph, 110.3 mph, 109.8 mph, and 97 mph. Vientos lifted one to deep right and got a stroke of fortune when two Detroit outfielders failed to come up with the ball, and it went for a double. Vientos was lifted for the recently recalled LuisangelAcuña to pinch-run, and he came around to score on a two-run single to left from McNeil.

After Mullins grounded out for the first out, the hits continued: Torrens squared up a base hit, Baty added on an RBI single, Lindor drove in a run with a sac fly to center to make it a 10-run Mets lead, and Soto grounded a single before Paddack was mercifully lifted after allowing six runs on eight hits in the inning.

– After not issuing a walk in his last two outings, McLean issued back-to-back 3-2 walks with two down in the first inning, missing both times with his sweeper down in the zone. (The second walk came after he appeared to get squeezed on the 2-2 pitch to Riley Greene.) They came back down to haunt him as a 2-0 sinker up in the zone to Torkelson went for an RBI base hit to left. That brought pitching coach Jeremy Hefner out for a visit. Wenceel Pérez stayed on a McLean curveball down and smacked it to right to drive in another run, but was gunned down trying to advance to second on a good throw by Torrens to end the threat, but not before Detroit jumped ahead 2-1.

McLean issued another walk on a 3-2 pitch to start the second, missing down and away with a changeup, but he was erased trying to steal second with a perfect throw from Torrens. He allowed a one-out single before a pair of grounders to second saw him through two frames. 

And that is when McLean settled down with three straight 1-2-3 innings, getting one strikeout in the third, another in the fourth, and three in the fifth. Mclean made it 14 straight retired with another strikeout looking in the sixth

McLean likely could have kept going, but after his offense put together a 20-minute top of the seventh, his night was ended with a final line of two runs on three hits, three walks, and seven strikeouts in 6.0 innings on 90 pitches (56 strikes).

– Kevin Herget, added to the roster ahead of the game, got the call out of the bullpen and pitched two scoreless innings, but couldn't close things down in the ninth, allowing a flyout to the wall in right, a walk, back-to-back RBI doubles, and an RBI single to cut the lead to seven runs. 

Ryne Stanek allowed a single on the first pitch he threw, but got a fly out to center and one to left to end the game.

Game MVP: Luis Torrens

In addition to his three-run shot, which broke the game wide open, the backstop added a caught stealing, an assist on a putout at second, and in the sixth was the trail runner in the double steal, giving him his first stolen base of his big league career in his 401st game. He finished the game 2-for-5 with three RBI and two runs scored.

Highlights

Upcoming schedule

The Mets and Tigers conclude the three-game set on Wednesday afternoon with a 1:10 p.m. first pitch on SNY.

Right-hander Clay Holmes (3.60 ERA, 1.314 WHIP with 111 strikeouts in 142.1 innings) gets the ball for the visitors in the matinee and will face a fellow righty in Casey Mize (3.95 ERA, 1.309 WHIP with 107 strikeouts in 120.2 innings).



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