J.D. Davis has four of Mets' 18 hits in easy win over Giants
The Mets' Pete Alonso celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Giants during the third inning of a game in San Francisco on Monday. Credit: AP/Jeff Chiu
SAN FRANCISCO — Before the Mets offered even a hint of their biggest offensive barrage of the year, when they were in fact still down by a couple of runs against a pitcher who seemed ready to cruise, J.D. Davis found what he had been looking for for weeks: that one swing that made it all click.
His line-drive single to center in the third inning against Alex Cobb started a big night for the Mets, who followed with a five-run rally and pounded 18 hits on the way to a 13-3 victory over the Giants, and a big night for Davis, who finished 4-for-5 with two RBIs.
Davis has two multi-hit games in the past three days. His season total before that? One.
“It was a good day. I’m a little giddy inside, but I’m trying to hold it in,” said Davis, who upped his average from .188 to .230 and OPS from .586 to .677 in less than three hours. “That first at-bat, just like a shooter in basketball, you find that point of contact, you stay inside the ball and you kind of get that barrel or a line drive up the middle that gets you locked in. After that plate appearance against Cobb, trying to get him out over the plate, staying inside that ball kind of locked me in. I felt good going from there.”
So did the rest of the Mets (29-15).
Each member of the starting lineup had at least one hit on their way to a season-high run total. Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor, Jeff McNeil, Eduardo Escobar and Davis had multiple RBIs.
The Mets blew the game open via back-to-back homers from McNeil and Mark Canha in the eighth inning against Mauricio Llovera. Escobar nearly made it three in a row, but his fly ball was caught at the warning track in left-centerfield.
It got so ugly for the Giants (22-19) that manager Gabe Kapler turned to outfielder Luis Gonzalez to pitch the top of the ninth — his third relief appearance of the year. He gave up three runs, including two on Escobar’s double, throwing low-40s lobs that registered as sliders.
“They got into a real pass-the-baton thing there,” manager Buck Showalter said of his hitters. “It worked out.”
David Peterson was strong in his first start in place of Max Scherzer (left oblique strain), holding San Francisco to two runs in six innings. Those runs came early — Brandon Crawford tagged him for a two-run home run in the second — but Peterson settled down, retiring 11 batters in a row to finish his outing. His first three innings required 60 pitches, the next three 39.
Through four starts and one relief appearance across three stints with the major-league team, Peterson has been more reliable and effective than the Mets could reasonably have hoped from their No. 7 starter. His ERA is 2.16.
“I love the way he responded after the homer,” Showalter said. “That was a good shot in the arm, him being able to get through six innings.”
Giants righthander Alex Cobb didn’t pitch as poorly as his line — six innings, six runs — would suggest. The Mets put together a game-changing rally with two outs in the third inning, parlaying several soft hits into two runs to bring up Alonso, who crushed a three-run homer for a 5-2 lead.
“We were fortunate,” Showalter said. “We got a lot of not very firm hit balls. But it’s what happens when you fight to put the ball in play. Things like that can happen.”
And it all started with Davis’ line drive against Cobb. Part of the problem for Davis, including getting unlucky with an inordinate number of rockets hit directly at defenders, is that he has been a part-time player, effectively sharing designated hitter duties with Dominic Smith, who also has struggled.
Showalter said Smith will play the next couple of days. Maybe he’ll find a way to keep Davis in there, too.
“I’m pretty excited right now,” Davis said. “I always want to be in the lineup, I always want to get in there because I can always run into days like these.”
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.
