Juan Soto homers, Tylor Megill tosses five solid innings in Mets' 3-1 win over Astros

Juan Soto hit his first home run with his new team and Tylor Megill allowed just one run in five frames as the Mets grabbed their first win of the 2025 season, 3-1, over the Houston Astros on Friday night.

Edwin Diaz got the ninth and looked like his old self, pumping in 98 mph fastballs and snapping off great sliders with ease. The closer needed 15 pitches for a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout to earn the save.

Here are some takeaways…

– Astros’ starter Hunter Brown had some juice in the first, with seven of his 11 pitches at 97 mph or faster. He got Francisco Lindor swinging on a 99 mph fastball and Soto looking at a sinker. Pete Alonso should have been called out on strikes, but home plate umpire Rob Drake was fooled by a 100 mph fastball on the outside corner – that was a theme for the rest of the night. On the next pitch, Alonso powered a 95 mph cutter to deep center (415 feet, 108.6 mph off the bat), but Jake Meyers made a leaping catch before the wall.

– Soto’s second at-bat went much better for the slugger as he smacked a 96 mph 1-2 cutter at the top of the zone for his first homer with his new team. Standing at the plate to admire his work, the sluggers saw the lined shot (107.3 mph off the bat) travel 390 feet and smack off the facade of the second deck in right.

Soto had a big chance in the eighth after Luis Torrens doubled (just missing a home run off the top of the wall in right) and Lindor got plunked. But Tayler Scott’s slider just eluded the sweet spot of the bat, and it was a fly out to right.

– Megill got Jose Altuve with a wild swing on a slider off the outside corner to start the home half of the first. Megill needed just 13 pitches for a clean first, and he was bringing the heat as well, throwing nine pitches at 96 mph or faster. The right-hander kept Houston off the bases through nine batters, adding two more strikeouts.

On his 45th pitch of the night, Altuve singled up the middle for the Astros’ first hit. Isaac Paredes pulled one down the third base line to put runners at the corners with nobody out in the fourth. Megill limited the damage with Jordan Alvarez grabbing a sacrifice fly and Christian Walker and Meyers swinging through pitches out of the zone.

A dropped third strike allowed Meyers to reach to start the sixth as Luis Torrens tried to backhand a slider and it skipped away from him. Altuve snuck a single past a diving Lindor and Carlos Mendoza called for Reed Garrett, who retired the side, despite issuing a one-out walk, getting two strikeouts: freezing Parades with a slider and getting Walker to wave at slider low and away.

– Out of the bullpen: A.J. Minter worked a clean seventh inning in his Mets debut, with a strikeout and a one-out walk on a 3-2 pitch that looked an awful lot like a strike. Ryne Stanek walked Altuve to start the eighth but kept the Astros quiet 

– In the second, Brandon Nimmo smacked a base hit to left. He didn’t stay at first for long, taking off with a walking lead while Brown was still in the stretch. Second baseman Brendan Rodgers failed to field the throw to give the Mets a runner in scoring position.

Mark Vientos, with a short compact swing, connected on a 2-2 sinker on the inside corner for an RBI double to left and Jesse Winker followed by taking a cutter over the plate up the middle to put the Mets up 2-0.

– The Mets had a chase to add to a 3-1 lead after Soto and Alonso worked walks with nobody down in the sixth. But Brown got Nimmo to bounce into a 4-3 double play and Vientos to fly out to center.

Nimmo got another chance with two down and runners on the corners in the eighth, but lefty Bryan King got him to loop a fly to center to end the threat.

– Brett Baty got his first start at second base and helped turn a 5-4-3 double play in the fifth, but had little action otherwise. He went 0-for-2 with a strikeout. 

Baty was lifted for pinch hitter Luisangel Acuña in the seventh with Houston left-hander Steven Okert on the mound. 

Acuña, who went down swinging in that at-bat, made a fine play diving to his left to steal a base hit in the eighth.

Game MVP: Megill (and the pitchers)

Yes, Soto had the big dinger and went 1-for-3 with a walk, but the starter delivered 5.0 innings (plus two batters), three hits, one run, one walk, six strikeouts on 77 pitches (49 strikes). The four relievers combined four scoreless innings with no hits (three walks) and four strikeouts on 69 pitches (44 strikes).

Highlights

Upcoming schedule

The Mets look to take the series against the Astros on Saturday night, first pitch is set for 7:15 p.m.

Right-hander Griffin Canning makes his debut for the club against righty Spencer Arrighetti.

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