The Mets had spent most of Sunday looking like a club that might let the day slip away. Then the eighth inning hit, and everything flipped.
Brett Baty and Bo Bichette each went deep in a furious late rally, pushing the Mets to a 4-2 win over the Giants and helping them take the series in New York. Trailing 2-0 and getting little done against Giants rookie Cesar Perdomo, the Mets finally found life against the bullpen and turned a quiet afternoon into a comeback.
Baty sparked it first. Pinch-hitting for Nick Morabito, he launched a solo homer to put the Mets on the board and jolt the game awake.
After AJ Ewing singled, the Giants intentionally walked Juan Soto to bring Bichette to the plate. Bichette made them pay with a three-run blast that gave the Mets the lead for good.
Kodai Senga finished the job with a quick ninth inning, setting the Giants down in order to lock up the save. It capped a strong pitching day for New York, one that also included a solid start from Christian Scott.
For most of the game, though, Perdomo was the story. In his first career start, he made the Mets work without much reward.
New York put runners on in each of the first three innings, but Perdomo settled in and retired 10 straight batters. He allowed a walk to Francisco Lindor in the sixth, then watched Soto ground into a double play to end the inning.
Perdomo ended up with six scoreless frames.
The Mets finally broke through after Perdomo was out. Carson Benge lined a double down the right-field line in the seventh off Giants reliever Joel Kuhnel, but Jared Young and Marcus Semien couldn’t bring him home. That set the stage for the eighth-inning damage.
Scott gave the Mets a chance to hang around. He opened the game with three perfect innings, striking out Rafael Devers with a cutter in the first and getting help from his defense, including Morabito’s crashing catch into the wall to retire Grant McCray in the third.
The Giants eventually cracked him in the fourth after two outs, stringing together three straight hits, highlighted by Jung Hoo Lee’s two-run single. They added more pressure in the fifth when Mark Vientos committed an error at first base.
Drew Cavanaugh singled, Christian Koss sent a grounder down the line that Vientos couldn’t handle, and the miscue let Cavanaugh and Koss move into scoring position. With Devers coming up, interim manager Andy Green turned to Nate Lavender, who struck out Devers in a key moment.
Scott’s line ended at 4.2 innings, with seven strikeouts and no walks. Jonathan Pintaro then worked two scoreless innings, aided by a diving catch from Benge to end the sixth, and Tobias Myers added a scoreless appearance in his first Major-League action since July.
Carson Seymour took the loss for the Giants after allowing four runs in the eighth. He had given up four runs total across his previous 13 outings entering Sunday. Baty’s homer was his first since Aug. 10 in Atlanta, while Bichette had been 0-for-3 with a strikeout before delivering the go-ahead swing.
The Mets head to Miami next for a series with the Marlins. Jonah Tong is scheduled to start Monday’s opener at 1:10 PM EDT, which will be his first Major League appearance since June 2.
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