The New York Mets' offense was awful on their recent raod trip, but the hitters were stellar against Detroit today.
The New York Mets were able to right the ship in their first series at home after a disappointing road trip, as they posted their first series sweep of the season by beating the Detroit Tigers, 9-4. The game featured five Mets home runs, including the first career homer for rookie A.J. Ewing, as Nolan McLean got the win by going seven innings without his best stuff.
McLean had a rough first inning as the Tigers broke out on top. He walked Colt Keith, then gave up a single to Riley Greene, and Gage Workman hit a three-run homer to give Detroit a 3-0 lead. That’s been a huge lead against the struggling Mets offense lately, but this was a very different game.
A.J. Ewing got the Mets on the board in the third as a he led off the inning with a line drive homer to right that was the first of his young career. Ewing wasn’t supposed to give the Mets much power, but apparently he missed the memo about that. That made it 3-1, and the Mets tied the game in the fourth innings as MJ Melendez walked and Brett Baty drove him home with a two-run homer.
The Mets kept hitting, and they scored at least one run in every remaining inning, starting with three in the fifth. Carson Benge singled and stole a base, and Juan Soto celebrated his return to the line up with another single. Mark Vientos supplied the power in this on e with the Mets’ third home run of the day, a three-run shot that put New York ahead 6-3.
The Mets played small ball in the sixth as backup catcher Hayden dropped a safety squeeze to drive home Marcus Semien after Semien walked and Ewing singled, and Soto got in on the home run act with a solo shot the next inning to make it 8-3. Both teams scored a run in the eighth for the final score, with Dillon Dingler hitting one out for the Tigers and Semien responding with a solo homer for the Mets in the bottom of the inning.
McLean’s stats weren’t gaudy, but he shut the Tigers down after given up three in the first, and he ended up scattering six hits while striking out seven with Myers giving up the final run in the night.
The Mets look like a very different team with Ewing and Benge supplying energy and traffic at both ends of the lineup, and they now move on the first edition of the Subway Series this weekend at Citi Field. A strong series could put them within shouting distance of .500, so will be interesting to see how Ewing, Benge, Soto and company fare against the reeling New York Yankees, who have suddenly lost five of their last six.