Francisco Lindor homered in both at-bats, including a grand slam, and David Peterson pitched 7 1/3 innings as the visiting New York Mets took advantage of San Diego Padres errors to win 7-1 on Saturday night.
Peterson (8-1) threw 96 pitches, allowing just five hits and one run with two walks and two strikeouts. The long starts were necessary after New York’s relievers had to pitch 9 2/3 innings in the first two games of the series.
Michael King (11-7) was the losing pitcher due to poor control and four critical errors in the first inning. He gave up three hits and five runs (one earned) in five innings. King walked three and struck out seven batters.
With two outs and the bases loaded in the fourth inning, Starling Marte singled to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. Francisco Alvarez hit a bounding ball to third base, but Manny Machado got him out on an error. After King singled off Jeff McNeil, Lindor, batting from the left side, launched a 2-0 sweeper estimated at 417 feet to right-center field to put New York in control.
In the seventh inning, Lindor hit his 27th home run, a liner off left-handed reliever Yuki Matsui, into the front row of the left-field stands to give the Mets a 6–1 lead. In the eighth inning, Harrison Bader hit a solo homer off Logan Gillaspie for his ninth home run of the season.
Peterson didn’t allow a hit until Xander Bogaerts singled with one out in the fourth inning, and the left-hander didn’t encounter any trouble until San Diego loaded the bases with one out in the fifth inning, when Kyle Higashioka hit an infield single, Brice Johnson walked and Mason McCoy singled.
Luis Arraez got an infield out to score Higashioka and advance the other runners to scoring position, but Peterson got Jurickson Profar to ground out to end the inning.
New York took the lead in the first inning on an RBI double by Pete Alonso that scored Mark Vientos.
Lindor and Higashioka were the only two players on either team to have two hits.
–Field Level Media
