New York Mets’ Pete Alonso marked an eventful afternoon with a two-run home run. A 7-6 victory off his bat in the bottom of the 10th inning blew the Mets away even before they began their trip for six games in Colorado.
“We’re just a bunch of resilient guys, and we’re gritty,” said Alonso after a 447-foot drive. “When you get guys that are talented and love to win and are a group of tough men, you get games like this.”
With three wins from four games against the Arizona Cardinals, the Mets are 26-14 tied for the fourth-best 40-game start in the team’s history. Jeff McNeil had a tiebreaking two-run single, three RBI, and two impressive catches in a game with four lead changes. The Mets went up 5-3 on McNeil’s two-run single in the fifth off Nick Wittgren and a .400 hit with runners in scoring position.
“He’s the Flying Squirrel for a reason,” Alonso said.
Paul Goldschmidt had four RBIs for the Cardinals, who trailed 2-0 until rookie Juan Yepez hit a home run for the first of his three hits. St. Louis took a 3-2 lead in the fifth on his RBI double off Chris Bassitt, but Brandon Nimmo’s RBI grounder in the bottom half tied the score.
Leading off the ninth, Harrison Bader reached on an infield hit for his third single. After stealing second for the second time on the day, he advanced to third on a groundout. Goldschmidt’s two-out infield single off a foot of third baseman Eduardo Escobar tied the game 5-5, while Edwin Diaz blew another save for the second time in 11 chances.
In the tenth inning, Albert Pujols made a run-scoring double-play grounder to score the automatic runner as the Cardinals went into extra innings for the first time this season. Taking a slider from Giovanny Gallegos and hitting a fastball at 114 mph, Alonso hit his third game-ending home run. He leads the major leagues with 36 RBI and 10 home runs.
New York has a season-high 12 games over .500 and prevailed 5-2 against the Cardinals. It was their first series victory since 2014. This year, the Mets are 3-0 in extra innings and have won 10 of 12 series.
“Pete saved us,” Bassitt said.
Bassitt gave up four runs and nine hits in 6 1/3 innings, while Hudson allowed four runs and five hits in 4 2/3 innings. Hudson paused for four to five seconds in every pitch, resulting in a 3-hour, 41-minute game time.
“The pace of today’s game wasn’t really pleasant,” said manager Oliver Marmol. “It’s just a matter of get the ball and get back on the mound—let’s get going. There’s a pace to it and aggressiveness to it, to keep the infield and outfield engaged, and I need to see more of that.”
Mets’ injury list
Max Scherzer has joined fellow ace Jacob deGrom on the injured list. New York blew a ninth-inning lead and fell behind in the 10th in Thursday’s match.
After leaving Wednesday night’s victory, the Mets confirmed Scherzer had strained an oblique muscle in his left side. Scherzer is expected to miss six to eight weeks. The team is also without deGrom, catcher James McCann, number five starter Tylor Megill, and relievers Sean Reid-Foley and Trevor May due to injuries.
