(2022) Tyler Naquin HRs Twice As Alonso & Vogelbach Go Back-to-Back & Diaz Records a Six Out Save

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 Thursday August 5th, 2022: Buck Schowalter's first place Mets (66-38) hosted Brian Snitker's second place Atlanta Braves (63-42) in the opener of a big five game series at Citi Field in front of 38,693 Mets fans. The Mets Carlos Carrasco (11-4) went up against Atlanta's Kyle Wright (13-4).

Carraco had won his last three decisions & had not allowed an earned run in any of his last three starts, 18.2 scoreless innings.

In the 1st inning, the Mets jumped out when Starling Marte got on with a one out, infield single. Francisco Lindor then drew a walk. Pete Alonso drove a base hit to left field bringing in Marte with the 1-0 lead, his 89th RBI of the year. He was now already 23rd on the Mets All-time list with 340 RBIs.

In the home 2nd, one of the recently acquired Mets, Tyler Naquin, hit his first Mets HR, a solo shot his 8th HR of the year, giving the Mets a 2-0 lead. It was the first of two he'd hit on the night, adding another in the 6th inning in his first Citi Field game. It was his fifth career multi-HR game.

Trivia: Naquin is the first Mets player in team history, to HR twice in his first home game for the team.

Quotes- Tyler Naquin: "Heck if I'd been playing here four years, that's a good night".

In the 3rd, Francisco Lindor drew a two out walk. Pete Alonso followed with his 29th HR of the year, his 90 & 91 RBIs of the year. Another one of the recently acquired Mets, Daniel Vogelbach followed with a back-to-back HR giving the Mets a 5-0 lead. 

It was Vogelbach's second Mets HR, as he hit a grand slam in yesterday's game in Washington D.C.

In the 5th, the Braves got a three run HR from Ronald Acuna Jr. bringing them within two. 

But that would be all Carrasco gave up, in six innings of work he allowed three runs on four hits as he struck out six, on his way to his 12th win of the year, with a 3.82 ERA. Before the HR he had gone 22 innings without giving up a run.

In the 7th, Adam Ottavino couldn't pitch a scoreless inning, as a pair of singles & a wild pitch made it a two-run game. 

Manager Buck Schowalter then made a gutsy call, asking his closer Edwin Diaz to pitch a six out -two inning save. He wanted to win the opener in the big series & knew Diaz was his best guy to hold down the Braves. 

Diaz delivered, striking out three in the last two innings, for his 24th save & his league leading 36 games finished. Diaz now had 87 strikeouts in 43.2 innings of work.

The Mets took a 4.5 game lead in the NL east, with the win in the first of a big five-game series at Citi Field against Atlanta thru the weekend.

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