The ambush lasted just a few minutes and would not be recreated on an otherwise mostly quiet Tuesday night.
But against Chicago’s Jonathan Cannon, the Mets launched a surprise attack immediately and held on from there.
The Mets came out ready to swing and did the bulk of their damage with an eyeblink of a two-homer, four-run first inning in a 6-4 win that sealed a series victory over the pushover White Sox in front of a Citi Field crowd of 34,944, who missed most of the action if they arrived late.
The Mets (34-21) matched a season high in moving to 13 games over .500 and have won four straight. Tylor Megill was strong, the bullpen solid and the offense explosive and quiet, in that order.
After Megill allowed a two-run homer to Miguel Vargas in the top of the first, the Mets responded as if they needed to erase the deficit as soon as possible.
“We were aggressive, had conviction, went in there with a good plan and we executed it,” manager Carlos Mendoza said after a six-hit first, their most knocks in the initial inning since Oct. 4, 2022. “We attacked right away.”
One of the quicker rallies you will see took place in a frame in which 10 hitters saw just 21 pitches.
Francisco Lindor recorded two of the outs, and the other required an asterisk because a confused Brandon Nimmo turned what would have been a Juan Soto double into a creatively scored lineout.
Otherwise, the inning betrayed an obvious scouting report: Be ready for your pitch, regardless of the duration of the at-bat.
After Lindor struck out to begin the frame, the Mets pounced:
- Nimmo reached on a first-pitch infield single aimed well up the middle.
- Soto smashed a second-pitch line drive into right-center that center fielder Michael A. Taylor dove for and trapped, as replay showed. Yet Nimmo believed the ball to be caught and retreated back to first base, passing Soto on the way and thus Soto was ruled out.
- Mets frustration was replaced by celebration, Pete Alonso jumping on a 1-1 sinker that he blasted 419 feet to center to tie the game.
“Whenever the pitches show up, you’ve got to capitalize,” Alonso said after his 11th homer of the season and second in three days. “I think we were able to capitalize on some of the stuff that was in the zone early in the count. We were just happy to have those pitches show up.”
- Brett Baty blooped a first-pitch cutter into center for a single.
- Jared Young drilled a second-pitch cutter to right for his first hit and home run with the Mets.
“I feel like I belong, and I feel like it’s a good spot and a good fit,” Young said after his first MLB homer since Sept. 22, 2023, his major league time interrupted by a stint in the KBO.
- Mark Vientos singled into left on the first pitch he saw.
- Jeff McNeil cracked a first-pitch single into right.
- Francisco Alvarez was drilled by the third pitch of the plate appearance.
- And Lindor grounded out on the second pitch of the at-bat, leaving the bases loaded.
“I think we were getting the right pitches. Trying to preach that controlled aggression, but when you get your pitch to be ready for it,” Nimmo said. “[Cannon] was putting the ball where we were looking for it.”
The damage done, the Mets squeezed two more runs across for the rest of the game (a third-inning sacrifice fly from McNeil and eighth-inning RBI single from Lindor) and held on largely because of the few arms they could use out of their tired bullpen.
José Buttó bailed Megill out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth.
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Buttó allowed two runs in the seventh but the White Sox got no closer because José Castillo bailed out Buttó to strand two in the inning.
Castillo allowed the potential tying run to reach first in the eighth before Reed Garrett did the bailing out.
Garrett did not allow a hit while recording the final five outs of the game, recording his second save of the season on a night Mendoza stayed away from Edwin Díaz, who would have been pitching for a fourth time in five days.
“Got ahead, put them away,” Mendoza said of Garrett, and which could not be said for White Sox pitching in the first inning.