Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

After an off day on Thursday, the Mets began their west coast trip with a game against the Oakland A’s late Friday night. Kodai Senga, who has impressed through his first two starts, took the mound for the Mets, while James Kaprielian, who has struggled through his first two starts, took the mound for the A’s.

The Mets were able to win this one comfortably by a score of 17-6, as they took advantage of 17 walks by Oakland pitchers and received two key hits including a grand slam from Francisco Lindor to build a gigantic lead early and hold on for the rest of the way. Remarkably, the A’s actually outhit the Mets, 13-11.

The Mets had a chance to pounce on Kaprielian almost immediately, putting runners on second and third in the first inning with hits by Starling Marte and Pete Alonso. The team’s woes with runners in scoring position continued, however, as Jeff McNeil popped up to the catcher to end the inning without a run being driven in.

Kaprielian began struggling with his command in the second inning, issuing three walks in the first four batters of the inning to load the bases. That brought up Brandon Nimmo, who is the last batter a pitcher struggling with command wants to face. Kaprielian walked Nimmo and Marte in back-to-back at-bats, bringing in two runs. He then gave Francisco Lindor a pitch to hit the next at-bat, and Lindor launched it over the center field wall for a grand slam to give the Mets an early 6-0 lead.

Senga, who pitched an easy 1-2-3 first inning, put two runners on in the bottom of the second with a walk and a bloop single, but he stranded the runners after striking out Shea Langeliers with the ghost fork, his third strikeout of the inning and his fourth through the first two innings.

In the bottom of the third, Senga issued a two-out walk to put Ryan Noda on first base. With the next batter drawing a 3-2 count, Noda got a running start and was able to score after Brent Rooker blooped a hit just beyond the reach of Luis Guillorme in shallow right field. Another weak contact hit by Ramón Laureano put runners on the corners, but Senga struck out Jace Peterson to limit the damage and end the inning.

The Mets were able to get two more runners on in the fourth inning with a Nimmo single and a Marte walk. Like he did in the first inning, McNeil came up to the plate with two outs and runners on second and third, but his fortunes did not change as he hit a weak line drive to first base to end the inning.

Oakland was able to trim the lead for the second straight inning as Langeliers hit a two-run homer to left field to make it 6-3 in the bottom of the fourth. A walk and a reach on a strikeout due to a passed ball brought the tying run to the plate, but Senga once again deployed the ghost fork and was able to induce a weak groundout to third base to once again limit the damage.

Hogan Harris appeared in relief to start the fifth inning for the A’s and he struggled to throw strikes, walking three of the first four batters in the inning. He subsequently hit Nimmo with a pitch to bring in a run and walked Marte to bring in another, a very similar sequence to what Kaprielian allowed in the second inning. Francisco Lindor, once again coming to the plate with the bases loaded, roped a pitch down the left field line and cleared the bases for a three run double, giving him a total of seven RBIs on the game and giving the Mets a monstrous 11-3 lead.

Alonso walked in the next at-bat and McNeil was hit by a pitch to once again load the bases. Daniel Vogelbach, who led off the inning, grounded into a fielder’s choice which scored Lindor from third to make it 12-3 and Eduardo Escobar struck out to end the nightmare inning for Oakland. Gary Cohen mentioned on the SNY broadcast that the Mets scored six runs in both the second and fifth innings on just one hit in each inning, and the great Sarah Langs confirmed that the Mets are the first team to do this in two separate innings of the same game since at least 1957.

With two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the fifth, Aledmys Díaz hit a solo shot to left field to cut the Mets’ lead to eight, the second home run of the game given up by Senga. After issuing a walk to Conner Capel, Senga was pulled with just one out to go to qualify for the win. In total, Senga threw 96 pitches and went 4 2/3 innings, giving up four runs on seven hits. He also issued four walks but struck out seven in a so-so performance.

Stephen Nogosek relieved Senga and loaded the bases after giving up two straight singles, but he was able to strike out Tony Kemp to end the inning and strand the three runners on base.

The Mets added on to their lead with an RBI double from Marte in the sixth, driving in Nimmo, who doubled himself to extend the Mets’ lead to nine. Marte’s double was his second hit of the night and his fifth time reaching base in his first five plate appearances.

The A’s answered right back in the bottom of the sixth with a Brent Rooker solo home run to bring the score to 13-5. That was Rooker’s fourth home run in the last three games and Oakland’s third of the game against Mets’ pitchers. Later in the inning, Nogosek was hit hard in the back by a comebacker and was forced to leave the game. Dennis Santana replaced Nogosek and put the inning to bed without issue.

The A’s scored again in the bottom of the seventh off of a sacrifice fly, their fifth straight inning scoring at least one run which would mean trouble if the Mets didn’t already build a comfortable lead. The sacrifice fly by Kemp brought the score to 13-6.

Former Met Jeurys Familia pitched a spotless eighth inning against the Mets, but staying on for the ninth he walked four straight batters to bring in a run to make it a 14-6 game. The A’s, now down by eight in the ninth inning, brought in catcher Carlos Pérez to try to save the rest of the bullpen. Eduardo Escobar took advantage of this by hitting a double and driving in two more runs to make it 16-6. Luis Guillorme piled on with a base hit of his own, his fifth time reaching base in the game, to make it 17-6.

John Curtiss put this eventful game to bed with a scoreless ninth inning, giving the Mets the 17-6 victory. The Mets scored their 17 runs on 11 hits and a club record 17 walks. It was just one short of the nine-inning MLB record of 18.

Player of the Game

Francisco Lindor earns player of the game honors for his performance Friday night. He benefitted greatly from poor Oakland pitching as he came to bat with the bases loaded twice in this game and capitalized both times. His final stat line was 2-for-5 with a grand slam, a double, a walk and a total of seven RBIs, which tied a career high.

On Deck

The Mets will look to take the series on Saturday, with first pitch scheduled for 4:07 p.m. ET. Carlos Carrasco is on the mound for the Mets looking to bounce back from consecutive poor starts, while Japanese rookie Shintaro Fujinami is looking to do the same for the A’s. The game will be broadcast on PIX11 and MLB.TV.