Mets sweep series from Giants, rallying on homers by Ronny Mauricio, Juan Soto
Ronny Mauricio of the Mets hits an RBI double scoring Francisco Alvarez against the San Francisco Giants in the top of the fifth inning at Oracle Park on Sunday in San Francisco. Credit: Getty Images/Thearon W. Henderson
SAN FRANCISCO — Ronny Mauricio made his splash, Juan Soto made them pay, and the Mets showed exactly how the West could be won.
Mauricio went 4-for-4 with two RBIs, including a tying solo homer into McCovey Cove at Oracle Park, and Soto added a go-ahead solo home run later in the seventh inning as the Mets came back to beat the Giants, 5-3, on Sunday evening.
They completed the sweep on the first leg of a West Coast trip that will continue against another playoff contender in the Padres. It was the Mets’ seventh straight win and second sweep in a row: They victimized another West Coast team in the Angels before flying cross country.
The Mets trailed 3-2 going into the seventh before Mauricio and Soto homered against Randy Rodriguez, who had allowed only one home run in 43 games as one of the best relievers in baseball this year. Soto’s homer interrupted chants of “overrated” that had just begun at the stadium.
Mauricio eviscerated Rodriguez’s belt-high slider, pulling it 398 feet and setting the kayaks scurrying in McCovey Cove. It was the 107th splash hit in the park’s history and the first by a Met since Michael Conforto did it in 2019.
Then, with two outs, Soto blasted a 98.6-mph fastball the other way for his 25th homer and a 4-3 lead.
“He wanted to hit one in the water,” a smiling Soto said of Mauricio. “He told me.”
Added Mauricio: “He was talking about hitting it to the ocean, so he hit it to the other side.”
The Mets had 12 hits, including two each by Jeff McNeil, Starling Marte and Francisco Alvarez.
“It’s one through nine,” Carlos Mendoza said. “I feel like anybody in this lineup can take anybody deep. That’s why we feel like we’re never out of a game.”
Attempting to protect a two-run lead in the ninth, Edwin Diaz got into trouble, loading the bases with one out. He walked Jung Hoo Lee, hit Heliot Ramos with a pitch and walked Rafael Devers to bring up Willy Adames, who already had two hits.
Adames struck out looking on a painted fastball on the outside edge. That brought up Matt Chapman, who already had homered twice. He fell behind 1-and-2 before swinging wildly through a fastball on the inside corner to end it.
Five Mets relievers combined to pitch four scoreless innings, and the bullpen didn’t allow a run in 11 innings in the series. Gregory Soto, activated Sunday after being acquired from the Orioles in a late-night trade Thursday, pitched a perfect seventh in his Mets debut.
Kodai Senga, who for the first time since returning from the injured list was allowed to exceed the 90-pitch mark, was erratic but kept the Mets in it. He allowed three runs, four hits and five walks and had three strikeouts in five innings. Senga threw 92 pitches, 55 for strikes.
The Mets manufactured a run off Spencer Bivens in the third. Alvarez and Mauricio led off with back-to-back singles and Brandon Nimmo hit a sharp grounder to second that he just barely legged out, forcing the Giants to settle for the forceout at second. With runners at the corners, Francisco Lindor softly hit a bounding ball over Bivens’ head that went for a run-scoring groundout to short.
In the fourth, Chapman teed off on a cutter that caught too much of the plate, blasting it 413 feet to left to tie the score at 1-1.
In the fifth, Alvarez smacked a leadoff double to center and scored on Mauricio’s double to right. Manager Bob Melvin lifted Bivens in favor of lefty Joey Lucchesi to face Nimmo, whose groundout moved Mauricio to third, but Adames got the out at the plate on Lindor’s grounder to short.
Chapman again victimized Senga in the bottom of the inning, this time with a man on base. Adames reached on a soft two-out single and Chapman lined a first-pitch fastball 410 feet to center to put the Giants up 3-2.
The Mets added an insurance run in the ninth when Mauricio led off with a double, Luisangel Acuna ran for him and Nimmo doubled to center.
“When he doesn’t chase, he puts himself in good hitter’s counts,” Mendoza said of Mauricio, who has had a reputation as a free swinger but has shown more discipline of late. “They’ve got to come in the zone, so when he’s forcing pitchers to come in the zone, he’s pretty dangerous.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
