The New York Mets acknowledged they needed more power bats in the lineup, and as a result, they called Mark Vientos. For one game, the Mets looked like geniuses.
Fellow rookie Kodai Senga got the start for the Mets. Senga had his best Major League start striking out 12 Tampa Bay Rays over six innings.
Unfortunately, he left the game with the Mets down 1-0. They would be losing 2-0 when Vientos came up in the seventh.
It was Vientos’ second Major League homer. It was also his first as a third baseman.
With the Rays going with the left-handed starter, Vientos started over Brett Baty at third. Baty pinch hit for Mark Canha in the ninth, but with the Mets down 5-2, he couldn’t come up with the big hit.
While Baty couldn’t, Francisco Álvarez could. With two on and two out, Álvarez hit a 1-0 sweeper 426 feet to tie the game at 5-5 sending the game to extras.
Interestingly enough, Baty would stay in the game to play left. Much of the reason for that is the Mets had little other choice with Canha, Eduardo Escobar, and Tommy Pham already out of the game with Luis Guillorme being sent down to Triple-A Syracuse.
This marked the first time all three of the Mets top prospects appeared in the same Major League game together. It’s also the first time all three appeared together in the field. Perhaps, it’s a blueprint for keeping all three in the lineup going forward.
The Mets did allow two runs in the top of the tenth. It could’ve been more, but Vientos made a strong throw from deep third to get the speedy Jose Siri.
In the tenth, fellow homegrown Met Pete Alonso hit a walk-off three run homer to give the Mets an 8-7 victory. That homer tied Alonso for the most extra inning walk-off homers in Mets history.
This may one day be seen as an important day in Mets history. It’s the first time Álvarez and Vientos homered in the same game in the majors. It’s the first time Álvarez, Baty, and Vientos appeared in the same Major League game.
For now, it’s an important Mets win against the best team in baseball. It was a win powered by three homegrown Mets – Vientos, Álvarez, and Alonso.
