NEW YORK � The rookie never stood a chance.
Jeff McNeil came up ready to hit when Marlins starter Robert Dugger took the mound for his major league debut. The Mets leadoff man sent a hanging slider into orbit and rewarded those who showed up early to Monday's doubleheader.
One pitch. One swing. One run.
Welcome to the show.
McNeil led off with a homer in the bottom of the first and the red-hot Mets continued their winning ways with a 6-2 victory over Miami in the matinee. Jacob deGrom did his job as well with seven solid innings and a pair of RBI at the plate.
The Mets have now won 10 of their last 11 games, and moved back to .500 for the first time since May 28. For months, manager Mickey Callaway and his players have talked about the importance of getting back to that benchmark.
Now it's a reality.
"We're just focused on the first game," Callaway said before the doubleheader. "That's the approach we've been taking for a long time. Let's just go out there and focus on this game. Obviously we understand that we're in that position, but we're concerned about winning the next game."
The Mets are suddenly the hottest team in baseball. They've won four straight series and have a major-league best 16-6 record since the All-Star break. In the process, they jumped to within 2.5 games of a playoff spot.
McNeil set the tone on Monday afternoon by going deep for the third straight game. Of his 17 career home runs, 11 have come on the first pitch.
Amed Rosario kept the power surge going in the third inning with another solo shot, his 12th of the year.
The Mets rallied for another two runs in the fourth inning with a leadoff walk to J.D. Davis, a hit by pitch for Todd Frazier and a walk to Juan Lagares. deGrom then plated both runs with a clean single up the middle, giving him two RBI in a game for only the third time in his career.
Pete Alonso drove in another run with an RBI single in the sixth, while Davis added a sacrifice fly two batters later.
deGrom needed just 94 pitches to get through seven innings, yielding two earned runs and striking out eight. He moved into second place on the National League strikeout list with 182, only behind Washington's Max Scherzer.
