Mets start West Coast trip with impressive, wire-to-wire win over Giants, 8-1

The Mets started their West Coast trip with an impressive 8-1 wire-to-wire win over the Giants in San Francisco on Friday night.

New York (60-44) remains 0.5 games ahead of the Phillies, who won their game earlier in the evening, to stay atop the NL East.

Here are the takeaways…

-Against a Cy Young-caliber pitcher in Logan Webb,the Mets jumped on him early in the first. Brandon Nimmo lined a double just over the head of left fielder Heliot Ramos — who took a bad route to the ball — and Francisco Lindor followed with a single. Lindor stole second before Juan Soto rolled over a grounder to the right side to plate Nimmo and move Lindor to third. Pete Alonso drove in Lindor with a sac fly to give the Mets an early 2-0 lead.

Clay Holmes wasn't much better in his half of the first, allowing a single to Ramos and a double to Rafael Devers to lead off. Willy Adames grounded out to drive in the Giants' first run. After a walk to Matt Chapman, Holmes bounced back by getting Mike Yastryzmski to fly out and Wilmer Flores to ground out to end the 33-pitch opening frame.

-Webb's struggles continued in the fourth as Brett Baty and Francisco Alvarez led off with back-to-back singles. Ronny Mauricio walked to load the bases for Tyrone Taylor with no outs. Taylor chopped a grounder up the middle but Adames made a nice scoop and flip to second base, but Taylor beat out the potential double play as Baty scored. After Taylor stole second, Nimmo hit an opposite-field single to drive in two and push the Mets' lead to 6-1.

Webb would not last beyond the fourth, pitching his shortest outing of the season.

-Holmes did not last much longer as he struggled in the fifth. The right-hander allowed back-to-back singles to the No. 8 and 9 hitters, but Holmes got Ramos to pop up and Devers to strike out. He then got Adames to pop up to get through the fifth.

Holmes tied a career-high with 104 pitches (64 strikes) through his five innings. He allowed just one run on six hits, one walk while striking out two batters.

-The Mets' lineup wouldn't get much going against the Giants' bullpen, but it didn't matter as New York's bullpen was just as sharp with the team using three arms to get the final 12 outs of the game.

• Husacar Brazoban: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 1 K
• Rico Garcia: 2.0 IP, 3 K
• Jorge Castillo: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 3 K

-Alonso went 0-for-4 with a sac fly RBI in this one, but he helped the Mets on the defensive end, saving Holmes, Lindor and Mauricio from errors with his glove.

Lindor was struggling mightily before the series finale against the Angels, and his hot bat has traveled to the West Coast. After his single in the first inning, the Mets shortstop got around on an inside pitch from Webb and deposited it over the wall in right field for his 20th homer of the season. Lindor's last at-bat saw him drive a ground-rule double down the left field line. He finished 3-for-5.

The Mets scored their final two runs in the ninth after Luisangel Acuna scored from third on a wild pitch and Soto's single drove in Lindor from third.

-The Mets were 3-for-3 (Nimmo, Taylor, Lindor) on stolen base attempts against Webb. Webb entered Friday's game, having only given up four stolen bases this season in his first 21 starts.

Game MVP: Brandon Nimmo

Nimmo went 2-for-5 but his two-run single in the fourth put this game to bed.

Highlights

What's next

The Mets and Giants play the middle game of their three-game set on Saturday evening. First pitch is set for 9:05 p.m. on SNY.

David Peterson (6-4, 2.90 ERA) will take the mound as the Giants will send Robbie Ray (9-4, 2.92 ERA) to the bump.

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