Mets Use Power Surge To Post 6-2 Win Over Guardians

The New York Mets are trying to put their eventful trade deadline day behind them, and they did a solid job of it as they road a Sean Manaea start to a 6-2 win over the Cleveland Guardians, with the offense providing plenty of pop behind Manaea. 

The Mets homered early and often off Guardians starter Joey Cantillo to take a 4-0 lead. Luis Torrens started the action with a three-run bomb in the second and Bo Bichette followed up with a solo homer in the fourth. 

Manaea gave one back in the third on an RBI double from Angel Martinez to get Cleveland on the board, but Torrens came right back with a run-scoring single to make it 5-1. The Guardians nicked Manaea again in the sixth with an RBI single from Travis Bazzana to draw the Guardians to5-2, but that was as close as Cleveland got as the Mets debuted their reconfigured bullpen. 

First up was Daniel Duarte, who entered the mix about a week ago, and he continues his strong work with a pair of outs to get Manaea out of the sixth. Nate Lavender followed by making his big-league debut, and he struck out the first hitter he faced and went on to get four more outs. 

After that the Mets tried something completely different, as Kodai Senga pitched the ninth in an experiment that will have Senga throwing single innings. It worked on this particular evening, as Senga walked a batter but had an otherwise clean inning. 

Carson Benge punctuated the power display with a 451-foot homer to center in the eighth to make it 6-2 and give the Mets a solid win. Manaea provided the Mets with yet another good start with six innings of two run baseball, although walks were a problem as he gave out five free passes while striking out seven. 

Torrens was the ofensive hero with three hits, four RBIs and a run scored, and Bichette also had a three-hit night. Overall it was something that looked like a winning formula, although there are sure to be bullpen ups and downs in the coming weeks with all the changes going on. 

The Guardians dropped to .500 at 57-57, and they’re now hanging on for dear life in the third wild-card spot in the AL. The Mets have a good chance to play spoilers with the trade deadline over, and they’ll send Christian Scott to the mound against Tanner Bibee for Cleveland to try and get it done again tonight.