NEW YORK — Tylor Megill was in Syracuse two weeks ago preparing to start the season in Triple-A. After three appearances this season, he’s gone from a depth starter to one of the Mets’ more reliable arms.
It’s a small sample size, but Megill is 3-0 with a 2.25 ERA after the Mets’ 5-2 win over the San Diego Padres on Wednesday afternoon at Citi Field. Megill went five innings in the win, allowing a two-run homer to Juan Soto in the first inning before going four strong afterwards.
Left-hander Blake Snell didn’t give up much either, but the Mets (7-6) got two big bangs from Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso and strung together a few more runs to take the series 2-1 from San Diego (7-6).
Lindor homered off Snell (0-2) to lead off the third inning to tie the game at 2-2. Alonso launched the go-ahead bomb in the fifth with two out. It was his sixth of the season and he sits atop the league for the lead. The rest of the Mets only have six combined home runs.
Soto’s home run came on a 3-1 fastball. It was a towering shot that was a no-doubter right from the crack of the bat. It went 453 feet off the Shea bridge above the bullpens in right-center field.
But Megill finished the outing with relative ease, allowing the two runs on three hits, walking three and striking out three.
The Mets took one off Snell in the second inning and another in the sixth when Brandon Nimmo drove in Eduardo Escobar to make it 4-2. Nimmo’s two-out single could have been more dangerous for San Diego if not for a clutch defensive play by third baseman Manny Machado one batter earlier. One night after driving in two runs and making two stellar defensive plays, Machado deftly turned a 5-2 double play to get the runner at third and at home.
That would end Snell’s day. The left-hander, who was on the mound for San Diego when the Mets defeated them in Game 2 of the NL wild-card series last fall, was tagged for four earned runs on six hits, he walked five and struck out five.
The Mets tacked on another run in the seventh, facing screwballer Brent Honeywell.
David Robertson worked two high-leverage innings for the Mets, putting runners on in the seventh and eighth. But the veteran right-hander stranded all four of them, getting Soto out in the seventh and Nelson Cruz in the ninth to set up Adam Ottavino for the save, his first of the season.
