Gunnar Henderson hit the tie-breaking homer in the eighth inning Monday night, when the visiting Baltimore Orioles beat the New York Mets 2-1 in the opener of a three-game interleague series.
Dedniel Nunez (1-1) retired the first two batters of the eighth — including former Mets star Pete Alonso — before Henderson homered to right-center to lift the Orioles (73-78) to just their fourth win in 13 games this month.
Baltimore moved 3 1/2 games behind the idle Cleveland Guardians for the final American League wild card berth.
Heston Kjerstad had two hits, including a run-scoring double.
Alonso, who hit a team-record 264 homers in his first seven big league seasons with the Mets, went 0-for-3 with a walk in his first game at Citi Field since signing a five-year deal with the Orioles last December.
Jackson Holliday had two hits and a run scored for Baltimore.
Yennier Cano (3-3) retired Bo Bichette to end the seventh and Grant Wolfram tossed a one-hit eighth before Rico Garcia retired all three batters in the ninth for his ninth save.
A.J. Ewing continued his late-season surge by homering for the Mets (69-81), who fell to 22-15 since the trade deadline but were officially eliminated from the wild card race.
Fellow rookie outfielder Carson Benge was 2-for-4 with a pair of singles for the Mets, who stranded nine baserunners.
Orioles starter Brandon Young gave up one run on five hits and five walks while striking out six over five innings. The Mets’ Jonah Tong allowed an unearned run on four hits and one walk while striking out six over six innings.
The Orioles went ahead in the second, when Holliday singled with one out, took second on a passed ball as Christian Encarnacion-Strand struck out and scored on Kjerstad’s double to right.
The Mets stranded five runners early on before Ewing tied the game with a one-out homer in the fourth. The homer was the third in the last nine games for Ewing, who went 46 games without a round-tripper from July 9 through Sept. 2.
–Field Level Media
