ATLANTA — The long ball — six of them, to be precise — was all the Mets needed in Saturday’s 9-2 series-clinching win over the Braves at Truist Park.
New York scored all nine of its runs via the home run and the big fly onslaught featured three home runs in the top of the seventh.
After Jeff McNeil put the Mets up 3-0 in the top of the third, Pete Alonso, Mark Vientos and Starling Marte got to Braves reliever Dylan Lee in the seventh.
Alonso hit a two-run homer, Vientos went back to back and Marte added another long ball one batter later, for his third hit of the game.
Not to be outdone, Vientos and McNeil went back to back again in the ninth, securing the Mets’ 10th instance of back-to-back homers this season.
After tying their season high of 21 hits in Friday’s series opener, the Mets tallied 11 hits on Saturday and have out-hit the Braves 32-15 and outscored them 21-9 in the first two contests. The Mets have also stolen six bases in those two games, including four in the first three innings on Saturday.
“The way we’ve been playing the last two nights, we’ve been taking a lot of pitches but also taking advantage of the pitchers’ mistakes,” Marte said through interpreter Alan Suriel. “We’ve been playing the brand of baseball that we know we’re capable of playing. We’ve been aggressive on the basepaths and we’re being aggressive on pitches in the zone.”
It was the second time this month the Mets recorded six home runs in a game, having accomplished the feat on Aug. 12 at Citi Field, also against the Braves.
“I feel like we’re doing a way better job with runners in scoring position, putting the ball in play, using the whole field, picking each other up and continuing to add on,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “Not only in just the first couple of innings but tonight we got up 3-0, then it was 3-2. Then for a couple of innings we were not able to do anything until we finally [added on] with Vientos and [Alonso]. We need that as a team.”
Marte finished 3-for-3 with a walk, two stolen bases and a putout at home, nabbing Nacho Alvarez Jr. as he attempted to score on a potential sacrifice fly off the bat of Jurickson Profar, Marte gunning down a tagging Alvarez at the plate. It was Marte’s first putout from left field since 2017.
Marte is the first player with at least a home run, an outfield assist and two stolen bases in a game since Luis Robert Jr. of the White Sox on Aug, 5, 2023. At 36 years and 318 days old, Marte is the second-oldest player to do so in at least the last 50 years, younger than only Tony Gwynn, who accomplished the feat on May 2, 1997, at 36 years and 358 days old.
It was Marte’s fourth multihit game in the last eight games he’s started — and he’s hit four of his eight home runs this season in August.
“My approach is to just put the ball in play and to give my teammates the opportunity to do what they do,” Marte said.
McNeil had been out of the Mets’ starting lineup since Wednesday with a sore shoulder, but returned after undergoing an MRI that came back clean. It didn’t seem to be bothering him on Saturday when he clubbed a Statcast-projected 420-foot three-run blast to the Chop House that gave the Mets all the runs they needed and is tied for the third-longest homer of his career.
“[The shoulder] feels good,” McNeil said. “It’s something we have to stay on top of. It definitely was a lot better throwing the ball today. I don’t really feel it when I swing so we’re good there.”
Starting pitcher Clay Holmes, who allowed two runs on three hits over 6 1/3 innings, made it through the sixth inning for the first time since June 7. Holmes said McNeil’s third-inning home run with two outs was the play of the game.
“[That was] huge,” Holmes said. “Especially picking up the two guys in scoring position with two outs there. It was just a massive swing. It put us up and gave me some room to wiggle with. That swing was the play of the night.”
The Mets (69-60) entered the series at Truist Park — where they were previously 0-3 this season – in danger of falling out of the final NL Wild Card spot but the series win and a Reds loss meant New York will enter Sunday’s series finale with a 2 1/2 game lead over Cincinnati.
