Mets’ offense wakes up and scores 13 runs en route to a victory

The last three days brought two rainouts and a shutout by the Brewers’ pitching staff for the New York Mets. Things were very, very different last night, though, as their offense was able to get to work and produce against the Pittsburgh Pirates to spark a 13-4 win.

The Mets scored 10 runs in an extremely productive sixth inning, and hit a total of four home runs in the night: one by surging slugger Pete Alonso, a grand slam by Francisco Lindor, and a dinger from each side of the plate by Jonathan Villar.

The Mets hadn’t put that many runs on the scoreboard in a single inning since Sept. 11, 2020, against the Toronto Blue Jays, and scored 10 times in an entire game only three times in 2021.

“That was a special inning,” Mets manager Luis Rojas told MLB.com. “We can get used to those. We know they don’t happen every day.”

The Mets’ big guns are catching fire

The grand slam was especially redeeming for Lindor, whose bad performance in the season’s first two months earned himself some boos from Mets’ fans.

“It just sucks getting booed. It’s that simple. I want to do the best I can every day to help the team win, and I was just listening,” Lindor said. “… We also feed off the fans, listening to them as I run the bases, sharing and celebrating with their loved ones, it’s something we don’t really do. We don’t really sit back and watch them. Look around, see how the fans react. It was pretty cool to see them reacting.”

Since the start of June, Lindor is batting .250/.347/.430, which is still not quite his usual pace, but he’s getting close.

“I’ve never hit .210, .205 in the first half, and I’m sure most of the guys have never done what they’re doing now,” Lindor said. “So seeing them getting results, including myself, it feels great.”

Alonso, on the other hand, is particularly hot for the Mets, hitting six home runs and driving in 14 runs in his last 19 games. Rojas isn’t surprised about this performance.

“That means he’s staying simple, so he was ready for that pitch,” Rojas said. “He looks really good right now. If he finds traffic and gets a pitch to hit, that’s what we need. We haven’t been hitting the homers we know we can hit.”

All in all, it was a good night for the Mets, and the offense as a whole has improved a lot lately.