NEW YORK — Forget the home run horse. The Mets should be celebrating with polar bears and flying squirrels.
Pete Alonso’s dinger and Jeff McNeil’s clutch pinch hit in the sixth inning helped the Mets beat the Blue Jays, 5-4, Sunday. Those two hits helped pick the Amazin’s back up after a disastrous top of the frame filled with defensive slips.
The Mets needed to respond after Saturday’s embarrassing loss to the Jays. They started on the right foot. Jonathan Villar got the Mets on the board early in the second on a single that scored J.D. Davis. Rich Hill took the mound for the first time since getting traded to the Mets. He managed five 3-hit, one-walk innings, slowly but surely starting to earn the attention of the crowd at Citi Field. By the next half inning, he seemed to run out of gas.
The southpaw hit his first batter of the sixth, George Springer. He gave up a single to his next batter, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Then, all without getting a single out, loaded the bases by walking Marcus Semien. A call to the bullpen was made to replace Hill, who departed the mound to a deserving round of applause from the fans. But that left reliever Seth Lugo to try to clean up the mess left on the bases. He didn’t get much help.
The first two runners scored on a Bo Bichette single that fell into the gap in center field. Both charged to Hill, with one more of his runners still on third. Teoscar Hernandez, with runners at the corners, grounded into Davis at third for what could have and should have been a double play. Davis, however, instead of throwing to second, tried to beat Semien home. The throw did not reach Tomas Nido in time to make the play and the Mets were suddenly down 3-1. Lugo stopped the bloodletting by retiring the next three batters.
Alonso, the two-time home run derby winner, came in the second half of the inning poised and at the ready with runner already on. Michael Conforto managed an easy ticket to first base on balls by Jays Ryan Borucki, then got to second on a wild pitch to Alonso. The Polar Bear stared down Borucki sixth pitch of the at-bat, took a slight breath, and bashed his 84-mph slider over the left field wall. Game, tied.
He trotted around the bases and made his way back to the dugout to high fives, then stood behind the railing straight-faced watching the rest of the game, drinking a bottle of water. Business as usual. And it got better from there.
Jeff McNeil, who came in as a pinch-hitter, after being left off the starting lineup recovering from left leg fatigue over the weekend, for Nido, and fell behind in the count up against ex-Met Jacob Barnes. Davis and Villar were already at second and third with one out left for the Mets. McNeil, who hasn’t played since getting pulled from Wednesday’s game in Cincinnati, ripped a line drive double into the gap in right field. And the Mets were back in the lead, 5-3.
The Jays were able to tack on one more run, but Edwin Diaz locked down the Mets one-run lead in the ninth by striking out three of his last four batters.
