Jacob deGrom added to his Cy Young candidacy with seven shutout innings and three different Mets homered, including Pete Alonso who cracked his 50th of the season, as the Mets opened up their series with the Reds with an 8-1 victory Friday night in Cincinnati. The victory put the Mets seven games over .500, which ties their high-water mark for the year.
It was a scoreless game until the sixth, when Jeff McNeil homered to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. The next inning Amed Rosario cracked a two-run homer to give deGrom a rare multi-run lead.
deGrom allowed just four baserunners in his seven innings and struck out nine. He lowered his ERA to 2.51 and upped his record to 10-8. He has a 17-inning scoreless streak and he’s won five of his last six decisions.
Alonso moved to within two homers of the MLB rookie record for homers in a season when he hit a bomb to center field in the eighth inning. The two-run blast gave him 115 RBIs for the season, nine away from tying the Mets’ all-time record.
With the big lead, the Mets didn’t have to use either of their top two relievers. They lost the shutout in the ninth inning when Jeurys Familia gave up a solo homer to rookie sensation Aristides Aquino, who now has 17 HR in 174 ABs.
Pete has as much “Real At Bat”/any Pitch power as any player I’ve seen. He joins names like Acuna and Judge and Trout as Uber Talents who can simply drive any pitch at any time.
That #50 was a Blistering Display of Twitch and Boom!