SAN FRANCISCO — The Mets salvaged a win against the Giants to avoid getting swept in back-to-back series by the two titans of the NL West.
Hours after owner Steve Cohen expressed frustration with his team’s underperforming offense, Kevin Pillar crushed a no-doubt three-run home run to left field in the top of the 12th inning to lead the Mets to a 6-2 win over the Giants. The four-hour extra-innings affair on Wednesday afternoon at Oracle Park snapped the Mets’ (60-60) five-game losing streak and pulled them back up to .500.
After a parade of impatient and aggressive at-bats resulting in zeroes, the Mets finally set the table in the top of the ninth inning and never looked back. It all began with Pete Alonso’s elbow while the Mets were down by one run. The first baseman was drilled on his elbow guard to lead off the ninth and Michael Conforto followed with a single to center to move Alonso to third. J.D. Davis drove Alonso home on a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 1-1.
Edwin Diaz pitched two shutdown innings in the ninth and 10th and kept the Giants off the board. The Mets again took the lead in the top of the 11th on Conforto’s double to right field, but Jeurys Familia allowed San Francisco to tie the game in the bottom of the frame. His outing, complete with a dominant strikeout to end the 11th, was enough to avoid a Giants’ walk-off and allow Pillar to go yard.
Tylor Megill continued his excellent rookie season by hurling six innings of one-run ball against San Francisco. The Giants, the club with the most home runs (181) in MLB, were unable to crush a long ball off Megill, who used his filthy slider to register six strikeouts, including two against Kris Bryant, in his 11th career start. The lone run he allowed came in the third inning, when the Giants nabbed him for three consecutive hits, but Megill concentrated and limited the damage.
