The New York Mets beat the Atlanta Braves 4-3 in the Grapefruit League opener for both teams from sunny Port St. Lucie on Saturday afternoon.

Pete Alonso took the first pitch he saw deep to left-center field for a two-run homer in the second, Robinson Cano drove in a run with an RBI infield single in the third, and Rymer Liriano added a long solo homer in the sixth to power the Mets’ offense.

Hector Santiago, Kyle Dowdy, Chris Flexen, Drew Gagnon, Anthony Kay, and Eric Hanhold all worked clean innings in relief after Walker Lockett allowed two earned runs over 1.2 innings to start the game.

Pitching

Walker Lockett began his Mets tenure with a three-pitch strikeout of Charlie Culberson to start his afternoon, then retired Johan Camargo and Adam Duvall on a couple of groundballs to close out the first.

Lockett walked Austin Riley to lead off the second, got Rafael Ortega to ground into a forceout, then gave up an infield single to Alex Jackson that Amed Rosario made a terrific stop on, but first baseman Pete Alonso couldn’t secure the low throw.

Cristian Pache followed with another infield single, this one a hotshot knocked down at third by J.D. Davis, which likely saved a run from crossing the plate but left the bases loaded for Greyson Jenista, who hit a sacrifice fly to shallow center to give the Braves a 1-0 lead.

Drew Lugbauer followed with a line drive single to center to score Jackson, extending Atlanta’s lead to 2-0 and bringing an end to Lockett’s initial outing. Sean Burnett came on to face Culberson with two outs and got the 29-year-old to fly out to Jeff McNeil in left.

Hector Santiago hit Camargo with a pitch in his first at-bat in the third, walked Duvall, then struck out Riley swinging, got Ortega to pop out to third, hit Jackson with a pitch (his second of the inning), and got Pache to fly out to Lagares in centerfield.

Rule 5 right-hander Kyle Dowdy came on to pitch the fourth, allowing a leadoff single up the middle to Jenista before striking out Lugbauer and retiring Culberson and Camargo on groundballs.

Chris Flexen got the call in the fifth, recording a fly out (Izzy Wilson) and striking out Riley before allowing a line drive single to Ortega and inducing a shallow pop out from Jackson.

Right-hander Drew Gagnon pitched the top of the sixth, striking out Connor Lien looking and Griffin Benson swinging before hitting Daniel Lockhart with a 2-0 pitch and getting Luis Marte to pop out.

Ray-Patrick Didder reached on a fielding error (Andres Gimenez) and Izzy Wilson singled to right field to lead off the seventh against Mets’ left-hander Anthony Kay, who proceeded to pick off Wilson at first base, strike out Riley on a great curveball, and induce an Ortega pop up.

Stephen Villines retired William Contreras (fly out) to start the eighth then gave up a solo homer to Connor Lien, cutting the Mets’ lead to 4-3. The right-hander got Benson to groundout and Lockhart to foul out to catcher Ali Sanchez end the frame.

Eric Hanhold took the mound in the top of the ninth, working around a base hit to secure the Mets’ first win of the spring.

Offense

Jeff McNeil struck out swinging to start off the bottom of the first against Atlanta’s Touki Toussaint, and Juan Lagares (groundout), and Robinson Cano (fly out to left) went down in succession.

Michael Conforto went down swinging to lead off the second, then J.D. Davis recorded the Mets first hit of the game on an infield single that ricocheted off of Toussaint’s foot, then Pete Alonso absolutely crushed an offering into the deepest part of the ballpark in left-center to tie the game at two apiece.

Arismendy Alcantara popped out to start the third against Braves left-hander Kolby Allard, then Jeff McNeil squirted one through Lugbauer’s legs at first, scampering over to second on the error. Lagares grounded out, moving McNeil to third, before Cano knocked the game’s fourth infield hit towards Camargo at shortstop to score McNeil, giving the Mets a 3-2 lead.

Conforto notched another infield hit in the next at-bat on a groundball up the middle that Camargo was able to track down to move Cano to third, but Davis grounded out to shortstop to end the threat.

Alonso drew a five-pitch walk to start the bottom of the fourth. Rosario then sent a long fly ball to left-center that Pache tracked down, Alonso moved to second on a wild pitch from Allard then to third on Tomas Nido‘s groundout, before Alcantara grounded out to third.

The Mets subbed out their starters midway through the fifth, with Dominic Smith coming into play first base, Gavin Cecchini at second, Andres Gimenez at shortstop, Dilson Herrera at third, Gregor Blanco into center field, with Rymer Liriano in right field and Tim Tebow in left.

Tebow led off the bottom of the fifth with a groundout to second base, Blanco struck out on a called third strike from Braves right-hander Wes Parsons and Cano (still in the game as the designated hitter) went down swinging.

Liriano drove an opposite-field home run to deep right-center field to lead off the sixth, giving the Mets a 4-2 lead. Herrera (pop out), Smith (ground out), and Gimenez (line out) went down in order following the blast.

Nido grounded out, Cecchini popped up behind second base, and Tebow grounded out as the Mets went down in order in the seventh then Blanco, David Thompson, and Liriano were retired in succession in the eighth versus Atlanta’s Chad Sobotka.

On Deck

Jacob deGrom is scheduled to start as the Mets will take on the Houston Astros at First Data Field in Port St. Lucie on Sunday at 1 p.m. The game will be televised on WPIX and broadcast on 880 AM WCBS.