Pete Alonso and Mark Canha hit home runs, Brandon Nimmo broke a seventh-inning tie with an RBI double and the visiting New York Mets made it two straight over the Oakland Athletics on Saturday afternoon, 3-2.
The low-scoring, well-pitched affair was in stark contrast to the series opener on Friday, when A’s pitchers set an Oakland-era record with 17 walks in a 17-6 defeat. Saturday’s game featured a total of five walks, including just by two by Oakland pitchers.
After A’s starter Shintaro Fujinami (0-3) had taken a 2-1 lead into the seventh inning, it took the Mets just four pitches to tie the game when Canha smacked his second homer of the season.
Fujinami then issued his second walk of the game to Daniel Vogelbach, before Trevor May came on to record two outs while pinch-runner Tim Locastro was stealing second. Nimmo then lashed a double down the right-field line, easily plating the eventual game-winning run that extended New York’s winning streak to three games.
Fujinami, who had been hit hard in his first two Major League Baseball starts, was charged with three runs on four hits in six-plus innings. He walked two and struck out five in Oakland’s third consecutive defeat.
One of the other three hits off Fujinami was Alonso’s seventh homer of the season, a solo shot that got the Mets on the board in the fourth after Oakland had taken an early 2-0 lead.
The A’s did all their scoring in the second. A single by Ramon Laureano and a double by Aledmys Diaz set the stage for an RBI infield out by Conner Capel and a two-out, run-scoring single by Esteury Ruiz.
Those were the only runs allowed by Mets starter Carlos Carrasco, who worked five innings and was charged with two runs on four hits. He walked one and struck out three.
Drew Smith (1-0), Brooks Raley, Adam Ottavino and closer David Robertson combined for four innings of one-hit, shutout relief. Smith earned the win after throwing a scoreless sixth and getting the first out of the seventh.
Robertson worked around a leadoff single by Perez in the ninth for his third save.
Nimmo also singled for the Mets to become the only player in the game with multiple hits. Each team finished with five hits.
–Field Level Media