Behind a four-hit, two-RBI night from Francisco Lindor and an eighth-inning solo homer from J.D. Martinez, the Mets grabbed a much-needed come-from-behind 3-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday night at Citi Field.
New York snapped a rough three-game losing streak to improve to 23-33.
Here are the takeaways…
- Lindor greeted Arizona starter Zac Gallen with a base hit off the glove of a diving Kevin Newman at short. But on the sixth delivery of his night, a first-pitch ball to DJ Stewart, Gallen spun around on his right leg and the right-hander was removed due to a hamstring strain.
Bryce Jarvis entered and after walking Stewart, got Brandon Nimmo on a sinking liner to left, J.D. Martinez to tap out and Starling Marte swinging on a ball way outside the zone to strand two in scoring position.
And that was a theme of the night: Lindor got hits, the Mets had runners, but couldn’t capitalize.
- Lindor did everything himself in the third driving a 431-foot homer (105.7 mph off the bat) to deep right-center off lefty Brandon Hughes. It was Lindor's second homer as a righty on the year in 45 at-bats and the seventh of his nine dingers belted with two strikes.
The Mets then got something cooking with two down after Martinez walked and Marte singled the tying run was in scoring position again. But Jeff McNeil grounded out to short to close the frame.
- In the fifth, Lindor got his third hit with a single, but Stewart went down looking and Nimmo hit into a 6-4-3 inning-ender. On the night, the Mets left seven on base and outside of the shortstop went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position to allow Arizona to hang around.
- Pete Alonso, who was not in the starting lineup after leaving Wednesday’s game after he was hit in the hand, pinch-hit for Brett Baty with one out in the seventh and yanked a two-strike double past the third baseman.
After pinch-hitter Harrison Bader popped out, it was up to Lindor and he hit a two-strike RBI single to right off right-hander Ryan Thompson to tie the game.
- With one down in the eighth, Martinez, got a first-pitch sinker and launched it 430 feet to center field (109.4 mph off the bat) for a go-ahead solo homer.
Marte followed with his second hit of the night and stole second, but McNeil went down on a half swing (he finished 0-for-4) and Vientos hit a soft liner to end the inning.
- Reed Garrett got the chance to close things out in the ninth and walked leadoff hitter Christian Walker on a full-count slider well out of the zone to put the tying run on. But the righty got a pair of infield pop-ups on back-to-back first pitches and pinch-hitter Jake McCarthy to ground out meekly to second to end it.