Soto Homers Twice as Mets Finally Beat the Braves

After dropping 10 of their last 11 games, including the last two games to the Braves in New York, the Mets were hoping to get things back on track in game three on Wednesday night.

Right-handed pitcher Didier Fuentes (0-2, 10.80 ERA) made his second start of his major league career for the Braves against the Mets’ veteran righty Clay Holmes (8-4, 2.97 ERA).

The Mets’ offense was firing on all cylinders on Wednesday. Eight of the Mets’ nine starters had at least one hit on Wednesday, as they came away with a 7-3 victory.

Juan Soto was the big story of the night with two big solo home runs, his 18th and 19th of the season. Jeff McNeil was also 2-for-4 with a run scored and had a great catch in the first inning. Brett Baty was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored. Ronny Mauricio contributed with a 3-for-4 day, including a home run and two runs scored.

Marcell Ozuna tried to give the Braves the lead in the first inning, but McNeil came up huge with a leaping catch above the center field wall to rob Ozuna of a two-run home run.

Mauricio put the Mets in the lead in the third with a solo home run to right field to make it a 1-0 Mets lead. However, Drake Baldwin answered right back for the Braves. The former hockey player reached down to get a pitch down low off Holmes and drove it over the center field fence to even it up 1-1 in the top of the fourth.

The Mets answered right back in the bottom of the fourth. Soto got the fourth inning party started with a solo home run to center field to retake the lead for the Mets.

Following Soto’s home run, Pete Alonso was hit by a pitch, and McNeil doubled to put runners on second and third for Starling Marte. He then hit a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Alonso. The rally continued with an RBI single by Brett Baty that scored McNeil to make it a 4-1 game. As the rally continued, Mauricio and Hayden Senger hit back-to-back singles to load the bases.

With the bases loaded, the Braves went to their bullpen, bringing in Aaron Bummer to replace Fuentes on the mound. With a fresh pitcher on the mound, the Mets weren’t phased as Francisco Lindor hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Baty, and then Nimmo, the Mets’ ninth batter of the inning followed with an RBI single as the Mets opened it up and made it a 6-1 game in the bottom of the fourth.

Holmes’ day was done after five as the Mets turned the game over to Brandon Waddell and the bullpen in the sixth. Holmes didn’t have his strongest stuff on Wednesday, but with each inning, he was able to battle through traffic. He gave up just one earned run on three hits, walked four and struck out two.

Soto extended the Mets’ lead in the seventh. He drove his second home run of the night out to center field. With that home run, he now has 27 multi-home run games in his career, surpassing Jimmie Foxx for the most for any player before turning 27.

The Mets gave the ball to 27-year-old Jonathan Pintaro in the ninth to try to close it out in his major league debut. He struggled a bit in his first big league inning. He gave up a walk to Ozzie Albies, followed by a line drive to Alex Verdugo to put two on. He then retired the next two he faced, but gave up a two-RBI single to Ronald Acuña Jr. that made it a 7-3 game, followed by a walk to Matt Olson that put two back on.

That was all for Pintaro, as with a save situation now in play, Carlos Mendoza called on Edwin Díaz to try to finish it out and secure the save. Díaz got Ozuna to ground out to Lindor, and the Mets held on to beat the Braves for the first time this season. They hope to walk away with a series split on Thursday night.

Player of the Game

The player of the game for Wednesday is Juan Soto for his two-home run night. He now leads the club with 19 homers this season

On Deck

The Mets and Braves will conclude their four-game series on Thursday night at 7:10 PM EDT. This will be the Mets’ final game of the brief homestand before they hit the road to Pittsburgh. Right-handed pitcher Grant Holmes (4-6, 3.71 ERA) will be on the mound for the Braves against the Mets’ righty Griffin Canning (7-3, 3.91 ERA).

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