Left fielder Tyler Naquin, playing his first game at Citi Field since being acquired from Cincinnati at the trade deadline, hit two of New York’s four home runs and the Mets rolled to a 6-4 win over the visiting Atlanta Braves on Thursday.
Naquin became the first player in franchise history to hit two runs in his home debut with the club. Pete Alonso and Daniel Vogelbach also went deep to give the Mets their third four-homer game of the season.
The win extended the Mets’ lead in the NL East to 4 1/2 games over the Braves.
Carlos Carrasco (12-4) pitched six innings and allowed three runs on four hits, one walk and six strikeouts. Carrasco’s streak of scoreless innings ended at 23 1/3 innings when the Braves scored in the fifth.
Edwin Diaz pitched the last two innings, striking out three, for his 24th save.
The losing pitcher was Kyle Wright (13-5), who pitched six innings and allowed six runs on seven hits, two walks, four strikeouts and a career-high four home runs. The loss ended Wright’s six-game winning streak and handed him his first setback since June 18.
The Mets scored a run in the first on a single by Alonso and a run in the second on Naquin’s solo homer.
New York took a 5-0 run by scoring three times in the third when Alonso and Vogelbach hit back-to-back homers. Alonso slammed a long two-run shot to left, his 29th, and Vogelbach swatted his 14th on a long fly to right.
The Braves cut the lead to 5-3 in the fifth inning. Michael Harris II drove in a run with a two-out single and rode home on Ronald Acuna Jr.’s two-run homer, his ninth, to straightaway center field. It was Acuna’s first home run since July 8.
Naquin went the other way with a solo shot, his ninth, to left-center field to up the lead to 6-3.
The Braves added a run in the seventh against reliever Adam Ottavino on an RBI single by Harris.
–Field Level Media