Pete Alonso continued his torrid start Thursday night, when he homered and drove in four runs as the visiting New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants 9-4 in the opener of a four-game series.
Jeff McNeil and Eduardo Escobar also homered for the Mets, who improved to 6-1 on their 10-game California road trip. The homer was the first of the season for McNeil, who had three hits.
New York’s Brandon Nimmo went 3-for-5 one day after tying a career high with five hits.
Blake Sabol and LaMonte Wade Jr. homered during a four-run fifth inning for the Giants, who have lost six of seven.
The Mets’ Kodai Senga and the Giants’ Sean Manaea traded zeros until the fourth inning, when New York scored five times.
Manaea (0-1) plunked leadoff batter Francisco Lindor before Alonso homered just beyond the fence in left field, his majors-leading ninth round-tripper of the year. He is the third player in team history to belt nine homers through the first 20 games of a season, joining Dave Kingman (1976) and Neil Walker (2016).
One out later, McNeil was plunked and Escobar homered. Manaea then walked Luis Guillorme and struck out Tomas Nido before Nimmo chased the left-hander with an RBI double.
The Giants cut the deficit to 5-4 against Senga (3-0) in the fifth, when Sabol led off with a homer and Wade went deep one out later. Senga then walked Thairo Estrada and Michael Conforto before striking out J.D. Davis. Mike Yastrzemski followed with an RBI single, and Conforto scored on a wild pitch.
Senga wriggled out of the jam by retiring Wilmer Flores on a popout to second base.
The Mets added insurance in the sixth, when McNeil homered off the right field foul pole, and in the seventh, when Alonso and McNeil each had RBI singles.
Senga allowed the four runs on five hits and four walks while striking out four over five innings.
Yastrzemski had three hits for the Giants.
Manaea was charged with five runs on four hits and three walks while striking out three over 3 2/3 innings. Tristan Beck, making his big league debut, went the remaining 5 1/3 innings, yielding four runs on nine hits.
–Field Level Media
