Mets Top D-Backs 3-1 Behind Alonso's Two Homers

The New York Mets defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks by a score of 3-1 (Box Score).

While Noah Syndergaard stole the headlines during the day on Monday, Jacob deGrom shined at night going seven strong allowing only one run, while striking out 11 to pickup his ninth win of the season.

Pete Alonso provided the majority of the offense with two-homers (46, 47), which accounted for two-of-the-three Met runs.

Seth Lugo took the eighth and ninth, retiring all six batters he faced, while striking out four. Lugo and deGrom combined to toss a three-hitter, allowing only four-base runners and striking out 15.

DeGrom, Lugo, and Pete all helped halt the Mets two-game losing streak to improve their record to 73-70. They also picked up a game on Arizona and the Philadelphia Phillies in the wild card race moving within a game of both clubs.

Pitching

In the first inning, the right-hander worked around a one-out bloop single by striking out the next two-batters. deGrom punched out three in the frame, but threw over 20-pitches.

The ace came out the next inning to face former Met fan favorite Wilmer Flores, who made his presumptuous return to Queens. DeGrom got Flores to groundout weakly to shortstop for the first out of the inning.

After striking out the next hitter, Nick Ahmed hit a sharp grounder to Pete Alonso, who laid out in the hole. Alonso fired an eratic throw to deGrom, who was coming over to cover first, but luckily Jake was able to adjust to make the catch and record the out to end the inning.

DeGrom had a nice third inning, striking out two more batters on his way to setting down eight in a row. Jake struck out six batters in the first three-innings.

DeGrom recorded his seventh strikeout and sat down his ninth hitter in a row to kick off the fourth. After giving up a single, Jake bounced back to induce Christian Walker into an inning ending double play.

Old friend Wilmer Flores welcomed himself back to lead-off the fifth with a solo shot (8) off of degrom, which cut the deficit in half 2-1.

After getting a fly-out and strikeout, deGrom walked Jarrod Dyson, who stole second and advanced to third on a throw that went into center. Luckily, the righty would come back to strikeout the opposing pitcher to end the inning. Despite recording nine strikeouts through five, his pitch count was already above eighty.

DeGrom pitched a rather quick-and-easy sixth inning striking out his 10th and 11th batters of the game. He also managed to remain under 100 pitches, which allowed him to pitch another frame.

Jake finished off his stellar night with a one-two-three seventh inning. deGrom threw 108-pitches in seven innings with 11 strikeouts, on three-hits, allowing one earned-run, and one-walk.

Seth Lugo came on to relieve deGrom in the top of the eighth as he would go for another six-out-save with a two-run lead. Lugo struck out two in an easy one-two-three first inning of his night.

The dominant reliever followed up with an even more impressive ninth. Lugo slammed the door shut on the top of the D-backs order by pitching another one-two-three inning. The righty struck out two-more to solidify a 3-1 Mets win.

DeGrom and Lugo struck out 15 strikeouts between them on the night while only allowing four total base runners. They also retired the last 13 opposing hitters to end the game.

Offense

Mets offense took on Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly on Monday night.

Despite Jeff McNeil grounding out to start the game, Pete Alonso followed up with his major league leading 46th homer of the season to put the Mets on the board 1-0.

The bats would stay quiet over the next two-innings as an Amed Rosario single represented the lone base runner.

The red-hot Wilson Ramos led off the bottom of the fourth stroking a double to center field that rolled all the way to the wall. Robinson Cano hit a little flare between second and short that almost caused a near collision between Flores and Ahmed, but the shortstop Ahmed was able to make the catch.

Next up, J.D. Davis was unable to drive in Ramos either as he grounded at weakly to third. Brandon Nimmo was then intentionally walked by Kelly to face Rosario.

Rosario made the D-backs pay for this questionable decision as he came through with an RBI-single to centerfield to extend the lead 2-0.

Although McNeil struck out to start the bottom of the fifth, Alonso sent another moonshot over the left field wall for his second homer (47) of the night. This home run extended the Mets lead to 3-1, and for Alonso, was his fourth multi-homer game of the season.

After Michael Conforto followed up with an opposite field single, Ramos grounded into an inning ending double play.

Kelly would be removed following the sixth inning. His final line was six innings, seven hits, three-earned, two walks, five strikeouts, and two home runs allowed.

Despite having a rough night at the plate, McNeil sliced his 47th double of the year with two-outs in the bottom of the seventh to extend his hitting streak to seven games.

This led the D-Backs manager to go to reliever Stefan Crichton to face the hot hitting Alonso. The move would ultimately pay off, as Crichton struck out Alonso to end the threat.