Canning Goes Six Strong, Vientos Ends Home Run Drought in Mets’ Win

Swaggy V is back, at least for one night in April.

Mark Vientos hit his first home run of the year, getting the Mets on the board in what would become a 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday night at Citi Field. The win snapped the Mets’ first losing streak of the year and brought them to 12-7 on the young season.

Vientos’ homer, an opposite field shot off the bottom of the right field pole, came in the second inning and ended a drought of 19 games and 62 at-bats this season.

The Mets got an impressive performance from starter Griffin Canning, who pitched six innings for the first time as a Met. Canning gave up just one run on three hits and two walks. He struck out eight, with five via the fastball, and recorded all nine of his other outs on ground balls.

The Mets did all their scoring in the second. After Starling Marte doubled, Brett Baty drove him in with an RBI single. Francisco Lindor singled to score Baty, and then smartly got in a rundown long enough to allow Tyrone Taylor to score all the way from first.

Lindor tallied three hits, all singles. Baty, who is facing the ire of Mets fans after a rough start at the plate, also doubled later for his second multi-hit game in a row.

“Vientos is fine, Baty is showing the things he’s capable of doing,” Carlos Mendoza said after the game.

After Reed Garrett and A.J. Minter each threw a scoreless inning, Edwin Díaz locked down a fairly easy save, striking out two after allowing a lead-off walk.

PLAYER OF THE GAME

Canning had his best start as a Met despite being ill earlier in the week.  He’s now 1-1 with a 3.43 ERA in four starts after signing a one-year, $4.25 million contract last offseason.

UP NEXT

David Peterson (1-1, 2.70 ERA) will take the hill against Miles Mikolas (0-2, 9.00 ERA) in game two of this four-game set. Peterson is coming off a tough loss to the A’s in which he gave up only two earned runs in six innings. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM.

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