Coming off a season-high 21-hit performance in Friday's 12-7 win, the Mets' offense stayed hot with 11 hits and blasted six home runs in a 9-2 win over the Atlanta Braves on Saturday night.
Jeff McNeil opened the scoring with a three-run homer in the third inning, Pete Alonso and Mark Vientos hit back-to-back HRs in the seventh, and then Starling Marte crushed a solo shot of his own two batters later. Vientos and McNeil would add on with back-to-back homers in the ninth, giving New York six home runs on the night.
It's the second time the Mets have hit six home runs in a game against the Braves this month, doing so previously on Aug. 12. After Saturday's win, their fifth in the last seven games, manager Carlos Mendoza discussed the difference he's seen in the offense as of late.
"Creating traffic and then feel like we’re doing a way better job with runners in scoring position," Mendoza said. "Putting the ball in play, using the whole field, picking each other up, and then continuing to add on… As a team offensively, you got to continue to add on. Controlling the strike zone, making better swing decisions. And then picking each other up, second and third and nobody out and Jeff gets that three-run homer, that was huge.
"Continue to have good at-bats and we know we’re a good offensive team and we’ve seen that the last few weeks."
Mendoza went on to say that he thinks the offense started to turn a corner during the Milwaukee series earlier in August and have been improving each series since.
"Even though we didn’t get the win, that weekend in Milwaukee against a pretty good pitching staff, we put some really good at-bats; we just didn’t finish games," Mendoza said. "Series after series, the Seattle series, we've been facing some really good arms and I feel like as a whole, we’ve put really good at-bats."
One of the key contributors Saturday night was Marte, who collected his fourth three-hit game of the season. Marte finished 3-for-3 at the plate with a home run, two stolen bases, and an impressive outfield assist to complete the inning-ending double play. Mendoza gave Marte praise for his all-around contributions and how important he is to this team.
"He’s running around, but he’s a good player," Mendoza said. "When he’s healthy and feeling really good, that’s the type of performance we’ve seen defensively, offensively, the base running. This is a guy we will continue to protect because we need him healthy, but playing at that level, we need that."
He added on Marte's power: "He's more balanced, he's healthy. When he can stay on that back leg and create that much force, he's got quick hands, the ball jumps off his bat. The balance, he's trusting the swing decisions. The lower half is in a really good position that allows him to do damage."
The 36-year-old has looked like his vintage self recently, hitting .313 with four home runs over his last 15 games. After playing just 86 games in 2023 and 94 games last season, Marte was asked how this season feels now that he's healthy, saying he's willing to do all he can every game.
"It feels good to be in the spirit of competition, to be able to go out there and have the trust of the manager," Marte said through a translator. "No matter how I'm feeling, I'm going to go out there. If there are days that I can't walk, I'm still going to go out there and give my best and leave it all out there on the field, no matter how it is that I feel. But I feel like I'm competing right now."
Marte noted his approach has been to "put the ball in play" and credited hitting coaches Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes for helping him stay locked in at the plate. The veteran added that he's pleased with how the team has played in Atlanta and they'll have to continue with that "brand of baseball" down the stretch.
"It feels good. The way that we've been playing the last two nights, we've been taking a lot of pitches, but also taking advantage of pitchers' mistakes," Marte said through a translator. "And we've been playing the brand of baseball that we know we're capable of playing. We've been aggressive on the basepaths, we're being aggressive on pitches in the zone.
"And when that's able to click for us, we're able to show the team we're capable of being. To then finally achieve the goal that we've promised each other at the end of the day."
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