Mark Vientos laced a go-ahead, three-run double in the eighth inning, Franciso Lindor added a three-run insurance homer in the ninth and the visiting New York Mets cooled off the Kansas City Royals with Friday night’s 8-3 victory.
After Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. broke a 1-1 tie with his two-run homer in the seventh off Huascar Brazoban (5-2), New York immediately answered in the eighth. The Royals’ Steven Cruz (2-1) allowed a single to Brandon Nimmo, then walked Lindor and Juan Soto to load the bases with nobody out.
All-Star closer Carlos Estevez came on for a potential six-out save and struck out Pete Alonso, who broke the bat over his knee in frustration. However, Vientos followed by clearing the bases via a right field gap-splitter to put the Mets ahead 4-3.
An inning later, Lindor iced matters by barely clearing the right-center-field wall with two on off Taylor Clarke. Soto followed with a solo shot as the Mets won for just the third time in 13 road games.
Kodai Senga grinded out four scoreless innings, allowing four hits, two walks and fanning four in his return from missing roughly a month with a hamstring issue. New York batters struck out 12 times, but drew eight walks.
Witt was one of four players with two hits for the Royals, who had won four straight and six of seven. Michael Wacha allowed a run, two hits and three walks over five innings.
Kansas City stranded two runners in each of the first two innings against Senga, and the Mets opened in the scoring in the third while making Wacha throw 34 pitches in the frame. He yielded singles to Luis Torrens and Lindor plus two walks, including one to Alonso with the bases loaded.
The Royals leveled the contest with New York’s Alex Carrillo amid his second inning of work in the sixth. Salvador Perez singled and eventually scored from first after left fielder Nimmo made a half-hearted dive on Nick Loftin’s hit and allowed the ball to get by him.
–Field Level Media
