Daniel Vogelbach and Francisco Lindor slugged third-inning home runs while Max Scherzer carried a shutout into the seventh inning as the New York Mets opened a seven-day, six-game road trip with an 11-1 interleague victory over the slumping Houston Astros on Monday.
Vogelbach smacked a leadoff homer on the second pitch of the third, turning on a four-seam fastball from Astros rookie right-hander Hunter Brown (6-4) and depositing it 343 feet into the right field seats.
It marked the start of a sudden uprising against Brown, who retired the first six batters he faced with ease before coming undone while facing nine batters in the third.
Brown surrendered back-to-back singles to Brett Baty and Francisco Alvarez immediately after Vogelbach hit his fourth homer as the Mets’ lineup turned over to the top of the order.
Brown induced a flyout from Brandon Nimmo but surrendered an RBI single to center to Starling Marte before Lindor struck the decisive blow: a three-run blast to right that extended the lead to 5-0.
Brown retired eight of 10 batters after Lindor bashed his 14th home run but did not survive the sixth when Tommy Pham lined a leadoff double to left and scored on a Jeff McNeil single. Lindor added a two-run double in the Mets’ five-run ninth.
Brown allowed a career-worst six runs on seven hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.
Scherzer (6-2) had no such issues with the Astros, who dropped their fifth consecutive game and 10th in the past 13.
He retired the first six batters he faced, and after Jeremy Pena opened the third with a single to right, Scherzer retired 10 consecutive batters into the sixth. He had just 49 pitches on his ledger through five innings.
Martin Maldonado and Alex Bregman singled off Scherzer in the sixth, but the right-hander snuffed that threat with a strikeout of Kyle Tucker.
He lost his shutout bid when Yainer Diaz belted his sixth homer with one out in the seventh. Scherzer allowed one run on four hits with one walk and eight strikeouts over eight innings.
–Field Level Media
