WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On a night when their hitters had a hard time converting on their many scoring opportunities and their pitchers got hit hard early and often, the Mets won anyway, beating the Athletics, 7-6, on Friday.
For that, they can thank Pete Alonso — yes, again.
Alonso starred with his latest standout game: 3-for-3 with three RBIs, his fourth home run, a double and a sacrifice fly.
The Mets went 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position, including 1-for-12 in those spots in the first five frames. They left 10 runners on base.
Starter Griffin Canning and reliever Reed Garrett threatened to give the game away in the middle innings, barely holding on before giving way to the trio of Ryne Stanek, A.J. Minter and Edwin Diaz.
Diaz nearly blew it, too, allowing a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth on an RBI double by Shea Langeliers and a sacrifice fly by JJ Bleday. But he got Jacob Wilson to ground out to second, stranding the potential tying run at second base.
As the Mets built a slim advantage over the first half of the game, Brandon Nimmo was the early star.
He homered off lefthander JP Sears (four innings-plus, three runs) to open the scoring in the top of the second. In the bottom of the inning, as the A’s threatened with two on and two out, Max Muncy smoked a line drive to leftfield, where Nimmo made a leaping grab, punctuated by a backward somersault as he hit the ground.
The righthanded Canning benefited from a bunch of those kinds of outs: rockets at defenders. In 5 1⁄3 innings, he gave up four runs — three of those in a sixth inning in which he unraveled quickly — and had as many walks as strikeouts (three).
When A’s batters put balls in play, the average hit speed was 96 mph. An average velocity tends to be around 89 mph. A ball is considered hit hard at 95 or faster. The Athletics had six hard-hit batted balls that turned into outs against Griffin.
After manager Carlos Mendoza called on Garrett to finish the sixth, the A’s loaded the bases, but Tyler Soderstrom’s line drive landed in Juan Soto’s glove.
The Mets managed much-needed tack-on runs in a sixth-inning rally ignited when Jose Siri drew a nine-pitch walk after falling behind 0-and-2.
After they loaded the bases via that free pass, a fielding error and another walk, Alonso lofted a fly ball to medium-depth rightfield, where Lawrence Butler appeared caught off guard that Siri — known for his bold and sometimes reckless baserunning — dared dash home on what became a sacrifice fly. Butler threw poorly, flat-footed, and Siri scored easily.
The series opener marked the start of the Mets’ weekend visit to Sutter Health Park, a minor-league ballpark that the A’s are sharing with the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats (the Giants’ affiliate) as of the start of this season.
Although the talent on the field was of the major-league variety, most of the rest was minor-league stuff — and sometimes funky. With the visitors’ clubhouse out in left-centerfield, the Mets had a long, unusual walk across the field to their dugout on the first-base side. That was especially relevant for Starling Marte, the DH, who had to bounce between the batting cages in center and the dugout to stay ready between at-bats.
This is the A’s temporary arrangement — scheduled to be their home through 2027 — as they await their still-theoretical ballpark in Las Vegas. They no longer associate with any city name, branding themselves as simply the Athletics, but are trying to look forward to their eventual next location. Las Vegas ads adorn the left-centerfield wall, as well as their jersey sleeves.
Notes & quotes: Jeff McNeil (right oblique strain) started a rehab assignment with Low-A St. Lucie on Friday. He also will play Sunday and Tuesday, Carlos Mendoza said, before the Mets figure out what is next . . . Francisco Alvarez (hand surgery) also is with St. Lucie but will join Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday . . . Luis Torrens (right forearm bruise) went 1-for-5 with an RBI double and three strikeouts, his first time in the lineup in a week.
