Far too often this season, the Mets have failed to overcome short outings by their starting pitchers. But Monday night, the bats came alive when the Mets needed them the most, picking up Kodai Senga after the right-hander was lifted in the fifth inning.
Mark Vientos drove in the go-ahead run with a double off left-hander Christopher Sanchez in the fifth inning, and the Mets looked back, opening a crucial NL East series with a 13-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night at Citi Field.
The Phillies (76-55) remain 6.0 games ahead of the Mets (70-61) in the division, but the two teams will face one another six more times before the end of the season, giving the Mets time to close the gap. If they keep hitting the way they did Monday, they might have a shot.
Senga put the Mets in a hole early, allowing a leadoff triple to the first batter of the game, Trea Turner. A ground-ball by Kyle Schwarber made it 1-0, and the Phillies scored twice more in the third to go up 3-0.
The Mets responded in the bottom of the fourth with a two-out rally keyed by a single from Pete Alonso. A balk and a wild pitch put the Polar Bear on third for the red-hot Vientos, and the third baseman extended his hitting streak to eight games with an RBI double to make it 3-1.
Brandon Nimmo kept it going with an RBI single, and Sanchez walked Tyrone Taylor to put two on for Jeff McNeil, another one of the Mets’ hot hitters.
McNeil lined a slider to left, with the ball going off the glove of Bohm at third to drive in the tying run.
Juan Soto did something only he can do to set up the go-ahead run in the fifth. With Starling Marte at the plate and one out, he got a bad jump on a stolen base attempt, and Sanchez turned and fired to Harper at first to start a rundown. But Soto dove underneath Bryson Stott’s glove, catching the second baseman and Harper off guard. He was safe.
With two on and two out, Vientos went the other way with a 1-2 sinker, sending it to the right field corner and sending Soto home for a 4-3 lead.
The Mets chased Sanchez from the game in the sixth. He gave up a double to Tyrone Taylor before getting the first out, and a double to catcher Luis Torrens, the No. 9 hitter. Now down 6-3, the Phillies went to the bullpen.
An NL Cy Young frontrunner, Sanchez coughed up a season-high six runs (five earned) in the loss (11-5). For a team that has struggled to hit left-handed pitching all year, they’ve handled it well in three of their last four games, all wins against divisional rivals.
Then the Mets piled on the seventh, taking four runs off scuffling right-hander Jordan Romano to go up 10-3. Torrens had a three-run homer, just his third of the year, going 3-for-5 with five RBI on the night. Taylor had a three-hit night, McNeil drove in three runs and Vientos went 2-for-3 with two clutch doubles and two important RBI.
Torrens drove in his fifth run of the night during a three-run ninth to match his career-high mark set in 2021 with the Seattle Mariners.
All of this with Senga going only 4 1/3 innings, giving up three earned on six hits, walking three and striking out four. Starting pitching sets the tone, and he didn’t exactly set a great one.
Once the Mets get punched and the starter is knocked out of the game, they don’t always get back up. This time, it was the Mets doing the punching, delivering blow after blow to show the division leaders that they’re still in this race.
