Mets' Pete Alonso saves the day again with three RBIs in win over Athletics

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On a night when their hitters had a hard time converting on their many scoring opportunities and their pitchers got hit hard early and often, the Mets won anyway, beating the Athletics, 7-6, on Friday.

For that, they can thank Pete Alonso — yes, again.

Alonso starred with his latest standout game: 3-for-3 with  a home run, a double, a sacrifice fly and three RBIs. He is up to four homers and 18 RBIs in 13 games.

“I’m glad I have him. I’m glad he’s with us. He’s off to a great start,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Another day today, some really good at-bats, impacting the baseball. We saw the homer, we saw the double. He’s not missing pitches. He’s controlling the strike zone. He’s a good hitter.”

The Mets went 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position, including 1-for-12 in those spots in the first five frames. They left 10 runners on base.

Starter Griffin Canning and reliever Reed Garrett threatened to give the game away in the middle innings, barely holding on before giving way to the trio of Ryne Stanek, A.J. Minter and Edwin Diaz.

Diaz nearly blew it, too, allowing a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth on an RBI double by Shea Langeliers and a sacrifice fly by JJ Bleday. But he got Jacob Wilson to ground out to second, stranding the potential tying run at second base.

Over his past two outings, Diaz has allowed five runs in 1 2/3 innings. He said he is having particular trouble with lefthanded hitters but isn’t sure why.

“I got the save, we got the win, so I’m not really concerned,” he said. “I got the job done.”

Mendoza said: “He got the job done. That’s the bottom line. On a night when he had a hard time feeling the strike zone . . . he was able to calm down, continue to make pitches and got the third out and we got the W.”

As the Mets built a slim advantage over the first half of the game, Brandon Nimmo was the early star.

He homered off lefthander JP Sears (four innings-plus, three runs) to open the scoring in the top of the second. In the bottom of the inning, as the A’s threatened with two on and two out, Max Muncy smoked a line drive to leftfield, where Nimmo made a leaping grab, punctuated by a backward somersault as he hit the ground.

“That ball got on me quick. It kind of took me with it when I jumped up there,” Nimmo said. “It would’ve been a huge momentum change. Those are those pivotal plays during a game that add up at the end of the game — and you never know quite how much until it finishes. That’s one of those momentum-swingers that really switched it to our side, kept it on our side by a good amount.”

The righthanded Canning benefited from a bunch of those kinds of outs: rockets at defenders. In 5 1⁄3 innings, he gave up four runs — three of those in a sixth inning in which he unraveled quickly — and had as many walks as strikeouts (three).

When A’s batters put balls in play, the average hit speed was 96 mph. The average velocity across the majors tends to be around 89 mph. A ball is considered hit hard at 95 or faster. The Athletics had six hard-hit batted balls that turned into outs against Canning.

“He left a lot of pitches up in the zone,” Mendoza said. “He could tell you that his slider wasn’t as sharp. The changeup didn’t have the depth, and he left a lot of pitches up in the zone and they made him pay.”

After Mendoza called on Garrett to finish the sixth, the A’s loaded the bases, but Tyler Soderstrom’s line drive landed in Juan Soto’s glove.

The Mets managed much-needed tack-on runs in a sixth-inning rally ignited by Jose Siri drawing a nine-pitch walk after falling behind 0-and-2. Mendoza called it “the at-bat of the game.”

After the Mets loaded the bases via that free pass, a fielding error and another walk, Alonso lofted a fly ball to medium-depth rightfield, where Lawrence Butler appeared caught off guard that Siri — known for his bold and sometimes reckless baserunning — dared dash home on what became a sacrifice fly. Butler threw poorly, flat-footed, and Siri scored easily.

“He is just lightning-quick,” Alonso said. “I’m very thankful and the team is very thankful for getting that run. That was a huge run for us. I didn’t expect him to go. I mean, I was really blown away. It was a sick slide, sick play, great baserunning.”

Siri said through an interpreter: “When a runner like me is on base, I think they need to be more prepared.”

The series opener marked the start of the Mets’ weekend visit to Sutter Health Park, a minor-league ballpark that the A’s are sharing with the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats (the Giants’ affiliate) as of the start of this season.

 With the visitors’ clubhouse out in left-centerfield, the Mets had a long, unusual walk across the field to their dugout on the first-base side. That was especially relevant for Starling Marte, the DH, who had to bounce between the batting cages in center and the dugout to stay ready between at-bats.

Notes & quotes: Jeff McNeil (right oblique strain) started a rehab assignment with Low-A St. Lucie on Friday. He also will play Sunday and Tuesday, Mendoza said, before the Mets figure out what is next . . . Francisco Alvarez (hand surgery) also is with St. Lucie but will join Triple-A Syracuse on Tuesday . . . Luis Torrens (right forearm bruise) went 1-for-5 with an RBI double and three strikeouts, his first time in the lineup in a week.

By Tim Healey

timothy.healey@newsday.com@timbhealey

Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.