Far too often this season, the Mets have failed to overcome short outings by their starting pitchers. But Monday night, the bats came alive when the Mets needed them the most, picking up Kodai Senga after the right-hander was lifted in the fifth inning.
Mark Vientos drove in the go-ahead run with a double off left-hander Christopher Sanchez in the fifth inning, and the Mets looked back, opening a crucial NL East series with a 13-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night at Citi Field.
The Phillies (76-55) remain 6.0 games ahead of the Mets (70-61) in the division, but the two teams will face one another six more times before the end of the season, giving the Mets time to close the gap. If they keep hitting the way they did Monday, they might have a shot.
“I think we’re doing what we expect ourselves to do,” Vientos said. “Honestly, I think from 1-9, we’re a great lineup. Not only our pitching and our bullpen, but I’m just talking about our bats. The past couple games, we’ve been doing our thing and I think it’s just what we expect out of ourselves. I don’t think it’s anything less than that.”
Suddenly, the issues that have killed the offense all summer have been remedied. The Mets went 11-for-19 with runners in scoring position Monday, the most hits with RISP since May 3, 2017. One of the worst teams in the league when hitting with runners in scoring position all season, the Mets have suddenly hit .351 in those situations this month, the best in the NL and the second-best in baseball behind the Toronto Blue Jays (.360).
Pitching on regular rest for only the fourth time, Senga put the Mets in an early 3-0 hole, but they answered by scoring 13 unanswered runs.
They scored 13 unanswered runs, with the bottom three hitters in the order combining for eight hits and nine RBI. Catcher Luis Torrens went 3-for-5 with a home run and a five RBI on the night to match his career-high mark set in 2021 with the Seattle Mariners. Tyrone Taylor Taylor had a three-hit night and Jeff McNeil drove in three runs.
“I’ve been sitting here answering questions about struggles with runners in scoring position, I feel like, for quite a bit now,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “We’ve done a really good job, especially with two outs, getting two-out hits and going the other way.”
Vientos went 2-for-3 with two clutch doubles and two important RBI, extending his hitting streak to eight games.
“It was a struggle for him [this season],” Mendoza said. “But when you watch him here the past two weeks, the at-bat quality, using the whole field, driving the ball — when we get that version of Vientos, we’re in a good place.”
The Mets used a two-out rally in the fourty to tie the game. A balk and a wild pitch put the Polar Bear on third for the red-hot Vientos, and the third baseman extended his hitting streak to eight games with an RBI double to make it 3-1. Brandon Nimmo kept it going with an RBI single, and Sanchez walked Taylor to put two on for McNeil.
He lined a slider right off Bohm’s glove at third to drive in the tying run.
Juan Soto somehow managed to avoid a rundown in the fifth, putting the winning run at second. With two on and two out, Vientos went the other way with a 1-2 sinker, sending it to the right field corner and sending Soto home for a 4-3 lead.
“It feels good to do something,” Vientos said.
The Mets chased Sanchez from the game in the sixth. An NL Cy Young frontrunner, Sanchez coughed up a season-high six runs (five earned) in the loss (11-5). For a team that has struggled to hit left-handed pitching all year, they’ve handled some tough lefties well this month.
They piled on the seventh, taking four runs off scuffling Jordan Romano to go up 10-3.
No longer are the Mets going up to the plate trying to be heroes. They’re putting balls in play, using all fields and being “hitters,” Mendoza said.
All of this with Senga going only 4.0 innings, giving up three earned on six hits, walking three and striking out four. Starting pitching sets the tone, and he didn’t exactly set a great one. Credit the bullpen for tossing five solid innings.
“That wasn’t the plan,” Mendoza said. “We need our starters, I’ve been saying that for a long time. We’re going to need those guys, we’re going to need the starters. But it was good to see the bullpen today coming in and shutting some innings down.”
Senga thinks he knows what the problem is, but he doesn’t know how to fix it.
“The biggest difference is the sensation of delivering power to the ball, whether I’m able to do that or not,” he said through translator Hiro Fujiwara. “I’ve been lacking in that aspect a little bit. But despite that, I’m still out there every day trying to make it a win.”
Once the Mets get punched and the starter is knocked out of the game, they don’t always get back up. This time, it was the Mets doing the punching, delivering blow after blow to show the division leaders that they’re still in this race.
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