Mets chase Pirates' Paul Skenes in the first inning in Opening Day win
Mets rookie Carson Benge jumps in the air after homering during the sixth inning of his major-league debut on Opening Day at Citi Field on Thursday. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
Every Opening Day brings the erasure of last year’s sins, and in the case of the new-look Mets, their 11-7 win over the Pirates Thursday at Citi Field was as emphatic an indicator of that as anything.
The Mets looked to be a group utterly removed from the team of yesteryear, both physically and practically. The roster looks completely different, yes, but they also defended well, and fielded a deep lineup that could string together enough at-bats to sustain a rally — so much so that they chased off a reigning Cy Young Award winner in a five-run first inning.
Carson Benge hit a home run in his major-league debut and stole a base. Luis Robert Jr. went 2-for-4 with a run, two RBIs and a walk. Brett Baty contributed a three-run triple. Freddy Peralta was good enough to hold it together, though spotty in his first start for the Mets. He allowed four runs on six hits (two homers) with no walks and seven strikeouts over five innings.
The season actually began in inauspicious fashion, after Oneil Cruz blooped a leadoff single off Peralta, and Brandon Lowe unleashed on a first-pitch hanging curveball 337 feet to right and just past Benge’s outstretched glove for a two-run homer. Peralta proceeded to strike out the next three, but with Skenes on the mound, even those two runs seemed like a challenge.
They were not.
The Mets battered a wild Skenes in a first inning that would lead you to suspect the Pirates were actually cursed.
Francisco Lindor led off the game with a walk and scampered to third on Juan Soto’s single. Bo Bichette followed that up with a sacrifice fly to right. Jorge Polanco’s swinging bunt put runners on first and second, and Robert walked to load the bases. Baty then smashed an 0-and-1 changeup to center on a ball Cruz badly misjudged for a bases-clearing triple. Marcus Semien blooped a ball to center that Cruz lost in the sun to make it 5-2.
The scoring ended there but the indignities to the Pirates didn’t, as Skenes hit a batter and had to be pulled with two outs in the first. He allowed five runs on four hits with two walks and a strikeout, throwing 37 pitches, 26 for strikes.
The Pirates scored again in the third on Lowe’s second homer of the day, though the Mets got that back in the fourth on Robert’s RBI single. Henry Davis, though, cut the lead to 6-4 in the fifth, doubling in Nick Gonzalez, who led off the inning with a single.
The Mets went up 9-4 in the fifth, loading the bases against Mason Montgomery and Isaac Mattson and bringing up Soto, who singled sharply through the left side of the infield to score a run. They got another on Polanco’s bases-loaded walk, and the third on Robert’s infield single.
Benge, who walked and scored his first run in the fifth, got his big moment in the sixth, slamming a Justin Lawrence sweeper that got all of the plate into the home bullpen in right for his first hit (and his first MLB curtain call). Francisco Alvarez got in on the party, too, hitting a second-decker in the next at-bat to put the Mets up 11-5.
Along the way, there were some positive signs on defense. In the second, Bo Bichette, in his first major-league game at third, handled a tough grounder from Davis. His throw was far wide, but Polanco, who’d only played one at-bat in the majors at first coming into today, came off the bag and was able to make the catch and apply the tag. Robert, meanwhile, made a nice tumbling catch in center later that inning and, more importantl for the injury-prone centerfielder, popped up unscathed.
Notes & quotes: The Mets Thursday signed outfielder Tommy Pham to a minor-league deal, a source confirmed. Pham, who played with the Mets for 79 games in 2023, is a career .256 hitter and slashed .245/.330/.370 with the Pirates last year, hitting 10 homers with 52 RBIs in 120 games.
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.
