Mets get lift from Mark Vientos with early HR and go-ahead double in 10th in Arizona

PHOENIX — The Diamondbacks generally have been the cure to what ails opposing offenses.

Their staff ERA is 23rd in baseball, and Friday night’s starter was a particularly hittable Ryne Nelson and his 6.61 ERA.

Naturally, the Mets’ inconsistent bats fell silent. All but one, that is.

And that’s all it took.

A few days after manager Carlos Mendoza noted that when Mark Vientos is on, he can carry a team, he did just that, homering and then driving in the go-ahead run as the Mets gritted a win from the Diamondbacks, 3-1, at Chase Field in 10 innings. They’re now 5-2 in the month of May after a putrid April in which they became the worst team in baseball.

With Brett Baty on second base to start the 10th, Vientos lined a first-pitch double to give the Mets a 2-1 lead and effectively spark the offense to life. Carson Benge then smacked Kevin Ginkel’s low slider to the wall in left-center to drive in pinch runner Vidal Brujan with a ground-rule double.

“This is a guy that when he gets going, he gets locked in mentally, it helps him big time,” Mendoza said. That’s “anybody in this game, especially when it’s hard for you. But he’s a very good hitter and it’s just good to continue to see him have good results and get big hits for us . . . He’s not missing good pitches to hit. When he’s getting pitches in the zone, he’s doing damage. That’s when he’s at his best, driving the ball the other way, [hitting] the gaps, staying short [with his swing] at times, and just controlling the strike zone. But he’s pretty dangerous and we’ve seen the power over the years.”

Prior to Vientos’ hit, Nelson and a cadre of Diamondbacks relievers had retired 21 of 22 batters, the only aberration being Benge’s seventh-inning walk.

“That’s like a normal baseball game,” Vientos said. “Anything can happen in any inning and it’s a good thing that we stayed locked in all the way to the last out].”

His approach against Ginkel in that extra-inning at-bat was also indicative of what’s made Vientos so effective of late.

“I was just, ‘see ball, hit ball,’ ” he said. “I put a good swing on it. I found some grass.”

Nolan McLean, Luke Weaver, Brooks Raley, Devin Williams and Tobias Myers, meanwhile, limited the Diamondbacks to one run and five hits. Myers, collecting his first career save, retired the side in order, on two strikeouts and a pop-up.

Vientos, who hit two homers in one game against the Angels earlier this week and very nearly hit two more in a game against the Rockies on Monday, did his initial damage in the second inning. The first baseman rocketed Nelson’s 2-and-0 slider 401 feet to left-center to give the Mets a 1-0 lead.

“I’m always confident at the plate,” Vientos said. “I feel good right now for sure. I’ve just got to keep stacking the days and continue to be consistent.”

Nolan Arenado, though, led off the bottom of the inning with a homer of his own, a 405-foot shot to left off of McLean’s generally very effective sinker.

“I was able to zone a lot of breaking balls,” he said. “That’s been a big focus for me in the past and I was able to execute them pretty well . . . It’s my job to get as deep into the game as I can every time I go out. I was disappointed in myself last time [going just four innings] against the Angels . . . So it was pretty important for me today.”

McLean, who had his roughest outing of the season last time out, reverted back to his regular form, which is to say, highly dominant. That pitch to Arenado was really his only blip, as he allowed one run, three hits and a walk with six strikeouts over six innings, throwing 100 pitches, 63 for strikes. He got swings and misses on 20% of his pitches, and relied mostly on his sinker, which has a 7-run value, tied as the third-most effective pitch in baseball.

It was an almost expected bounce-back for McLean, who’s shown a fair share of grit in his young career, something that dates to the Mets calling him up in the midst of their 2025 collapse to essentially help them save the season.

“That’s just what makes him who he is — his ability to move on to the next pitch, next batter, next game,” Mendoza said before the game. “He makes adjustments. He comes in the next day and he’s watching film and what can I learn from that last one. That’s what makes him who he is.”

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.