NEW YORK — The Mets pulled out all the stops on Thursday night in a 6-4 win over Atlanta before 38,693 at Citi Field.
The NL East frontrunners hit four home runs against Atlanta starter Kyle Wright: two by newcomer Tyler Naquin, one by new Citi Field fan favorite Daniel Vogelbach and one by Pete Alonso.
Carlos Carrasco, who gave up three runs in six innings, extended his career best scoreless streak to 22 2/3 innings before allowing a run in the fifth.
Manager Buck Showalter went for the jugular when he called in Edwin Diaz to start the eighth for his first career six-out save.
Diaz struck out two in an 11-pitch, nine-strike eighth.
Eddie Rosario led off the ninth with a single before Travis d’Arnaud hit a fly ball to right for the first out.
After a wild pitch, Diaz struck out Marcell Ozuna on a 100-mile per hour fastball. Diaz fell behind Orlando Arcia 3-and-0 before before throwing a 99-mph fastball that Arcia tried to check his swing on. The ball hit his bat and trickled to the first-base side of the mound, where Diaz grabbed it and stepped on first for his 24th save.
The Mets might have come up short at the trade deadline in picking up the extra relief help their fans wanted, but Showalter showed he doesn’t need an eighth-inning guy if Diaz is rested enough to go two.
With the All-Star break (and since he didn’t pitch in the All-Star Game), Diaz had thrown only 4 1/3 innings in four appearances after a July 17 outing. So he was ready to go when Showalter needed him to help continue the Mets’ supremacy against the NL East. The Mets improved to 34-17 within the division.
The Mets increased their division lead to 4½ over the defending World Series champions in the first game of a five-game showdown series that includes a day-night doubleheader on Saturday and concludes with Jacob deGrom’s return to Citi Field on Sunday.
Alonso gave the Mets a 1-0 lead in the first with a one-out RBI single to score Starling Marte, who had reached on an infield single and moved to second on a walk to Francisco Lindor.
Naquin made it 2-0 in the second with a home run to the back of the home bullpen in right-center for his first home run as a Met.
Wright (13-5, 3.22 ERA) walked Lindor again in the third, this time with two outs, and Alonso made him pay with a two-run bomb over the party deck in left-center.
Oh, it was a party all right, as Alonso’s 29th homer gave him 91 RBIs and extended the lead to 4-0.
Vogelbach made it 5-0 by going back-to-back to right for his second Mets home run. Vogelbach’s first one was a grand slam on Wednesday in Washington.
Carrasco, who came into the game with an 18 2/3 scoreless innings streak, threw shutout ball for the first four innings, allowing one single and walking one.
Atlanta got to him with two outs in the fifth. Michael Harris II made it 5-1 with an RBI single that scored Travis d’Arnaud. Ronald Acuna Jr. followed with a two-run home run that went into the Home Run Apple in centerfield and shaved the Mets’ lead to 5-3.
Carrasco (12-4, 3.82 ERA) allowed four hits with one walk and six strikeouts.
Naquin made it 6-3 in the sixth when he took a low pitch and drove it over the fence in left for his second home run of the night.
Atlanta again pulled to within two on Harris’ two-out, RBI single off Adam Ottavino in the seventh. Lindor may have had a play on the ball up the middle had it not banged off second base and into centerfield.
