Jameson Taillon hadn’t given up a home run to a left-handed hitter all season until he came to Citi Field on Friday night and proceeded to give one up to the first hitter he faced.
The Mets hit four home runs in a 7-2 series-opening win over the Chicago Cubs. The switch-hitting Francisco Lindor (3-for-5, RBI) hit one from the left side, and three of the four lefties in the lineup took the former Yankees right-hander deep as well. Brett Baty and Jeff McNeil both homered in the second inning, and Juan Soto (2-for-4, two RBI) hit a massive shot to right-center for his fifth in the last eight days, and his eighth of the season.
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“It’s one of those days that we hit the ball and the ball went out,” Lindor said. “Sometimes we hit the ball here in this field and it doesn’t really go out, and sometimes you hit the ball right at people. Today, it was on our side.”
It’s been a tough start to the month for the Mets (25-14), who have gone 8-7 after a red-hot April, but they continue to dominate at home. The Cubs (22-17) came in with the third-best record in the National League, the second-best run-differential and a pitcher who doesn’t give up much to lefties.
And yet manager Carlos Mendoza, Taillon’s bench coach in the Bronx, made sure his left-handed bats got into the lineup.
“I’m looking at his numbers this year and he’s been a lot better against lefties. And like, ‘What am I missing here?’” Mendoza said. “For me, it’s still a small sample size here, so I went back the past few years. When you look at what lefties do against him, they do damage. So I didn’t want to put too much into it.”
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In the end, he went with his gut.
“It was, ‘You know what? I’m going to put the lefties in,’” Mendoza said. “I’m glad it worked out today.”
In the bottom of the first, Lindor teed off on a fastball and put it into the right field seats to give right-hander Clay Holmes a 1-0 lead to work with. Baty and McNeil then made it 3-0 in the second, and the Mets capitalized on a defensive blunder by Dansby Swanson to make it 5-0 in the bottom of the third.
With one out, Taillon walked Brandon Nimmo and gave up a single to Francisco Alvarez. Baty then chopped one to the left side, hitting it right in between converging infielders, reaching base safely before Swanson, the shortstop, could make a play.
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With the bases loaded and one out, Luisangel Acuña hit a double-play ball to Swanson, who stepped on second and threw to first, throwing the ball well over the head of Michael Busch. Nimmo scored and third base coach Mike Sarbaugh waved around Alvarez.
Kyle Tucker hit a leadoff home run off Holmes in the top of the fourth to make it 5-1. But as if to outdo one of the best right fielders in baseball, Soto — himself one of the best right fielders in baseball — hit one of the more impressive home runs you’ll see in the bottom of the inning.
Soto battled Taillon for seven pitches, getting ahead 2-0 before the pitcher evened the count at 2-2. He took a sweeper low and inside for ball three to work the count full.
He turned on the seventh pitch, an inside fastball, and drove it out nearly all the way to the Shea Bridge, 434 feet to the right-center stands.
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“I don’t think I even get there during batting practice,” Lindor said.
Holmes cruised with a large lead, going six innings, allowing three hits, walking three and striking out five. The only run was the home run by Tucker, the first homer given up by Holmes this season.
Tucker homered on a sinker, but that might have been the only bad one Holmes threw all night. He threw plenty of them — 52 to be exact — using them to get ahead in counts before using his changeup to finish hitters.
“The sinker felt good today, there was some really good movement on it,” Holmes said. “I think on those days, it’s just a matter of trusting it. The command may not be perfect, I may not be able to go in-zone, but it’s just, hey, trust your spot you’re starting it at and keep throwing it there, and more times than not we’ll probably get some good results.”
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After eight starts, Holmes is 5-1 with a 2.74 ERA. Clearly, the conversion project has been successful.
Taillon (2-2) lasted only four innings, his shortest start yet this season.
Throughout his career, Taillon’s splits have been mostly even against right- and left-handed hitters, but he’s been much better against left-handed hitters this season. Stacking the lineup with lefties and still finding a way to get Acuña in there for his speed as well proved effective, and it shows how the Mets can beat teams in different ways.
“It worked,” Mendoza said. “But it’s baseball. Sometimes it’s going to go our way sometimes [it wont], but it was good to see the lefties that were in the lineup doing some damage there.”
