Mets rally in eighth and defeat Giants in three straight games
The Mets' Tyrone Taylor celebrates with Luis Robert Jr. after both scored on Luis Torrens' two-run double against the San Francisco Giants during the eighth inning of a game in San Francisco on Sunday. Credit: AP/Jeff Chiu
SAN FRANCISCO — Consider the Mets’ early April crisis officially over.
On a weekend that began with them under .500 and watching Juan Soto limp off the field, the Mets rode their stellar rotation and a coterie of unsung bench heroes to ultimately take three straight from the Giants, finishing with Sunday’s 5-2 comeback victory at Oracle Park.
With the Mets down 2-1 in the eighth, pinch hitter Luis Torrens worked lefty reliever Erik Miller for nine pitches, punching the last one for a two-run double that stayed inside the rightfield line by a few feet. Tyrone Taylor, the pinch hitter whose three-run homer broke open Saturday’s 10-3 rout, scored the tying run after entering for Jorge Polanco, whose leadoff double got the rally started.
Mark Vientos had two more hits, including an RBI single, bumping him up to 10-for-21 (.476) with a 1.236 OPS in six games this season. Marcus Semien added an RBI double in the eighth to put the Mets ahead, 5-2.
One under-the-radar move from that eight-inning rally: Luis Robert Jr.’s steal of second base when the throw beat him easily thanks to a creative slide that dodged the tag.
Devin Williams allowed a pair of hits in the ninth, but got a gift from Matt Chapman, who was thrown out trying to steal second with Rafael Devers at the plate, before sealing his second save.
Jared Young, a last-minute lineup switch for Brett Baty, who was scratched Sunday because of a jammed thumb from the previous night’s win, went 3-for-3 before he was pulled in the eighth for the pinch-hitter Torrens. Young also made a great bullet throw from deep leftfield to cut down Jerar Encarnacion trying to stretch for a double in the fifth inning.
Kodai Senga followed up last Tuesday’s debut with another impressive performance, taking a 1-0 edge into the sixth inning, when he got burned by some soft contact and ultimately gave up the lead on a pair of two-out hits. Patrick Bailey, the No. 9 batter, led off with a bloop single before the slow-footed catcher somehow stole second base. That teed up Matt Chapman, who hooked a ghost fork inside the leftfield line for the tying RBI double and Rafael Devers put the Giants ahead with a 75-mph blooper that just dropped in front of the diving Luis Robert Jr., ending Senga’s afternoon.
Up to that point, Senga had cruised as the Mets’ offense stalled. He didn’t allow a hit through three innings. He struck out six, four with his signature ghost fork. Luis Arraez singled to open the fourth, but was erased on a double play. The only other hit through five innings was an Encarnacion single that Young’s throw erased at second.
It was Young, hitting fifth in the Soto-less lineup, who combined with Robert for back-to-back singles in the fifth inning before the scorching-hot Vientos put the Mets up 1-0 with an RBI single of his own.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
