Mark Canha homered leading off the seventh inning and Brandon Nimmo followed with an RBI double with two out that scored pinch-runner Tim Locastro as the New York Mets rallied to beat the Oakland Athletics 3-2 on Saturday.
Pete Alonso hit his seventh home run for the Mets. The solo drive off A's starter Shintaro Fujinami in the fourth was the 153rd of Alonso’s career and his 87th in a road game.
Outside of Alonso's homer, the Mets were kept in check for much of the game before getting to Fujinami (0-3) for a pair of runs in the seventh.
Canha, the former A's slugger, began the comeback with a leadoff home run that tied the game at 2. After Daniel Vogelbach walked and was replaced at first base by Locastro, Trevor May came in for Fujinami and retired the next two batters before Nimmo lined a 95.1 mph fastball from May down the right field line, scoring Locastro.
Before that, Fujinami was crisp and in line for his first win in the majors. The Japanese right-hander allowed three runs and four hits with five strikeouts over six innings. lowering his ERA from 17.55 to 11.37.
Drew Smith (1-1) retired four batters and had two strikeouts to earn the win. Brooks Raley set down two, Adam Ottavino pitched a scoreless eighth and David Robertson worked the ninth for his third save, despite a pitcher's clock violation.
Both of the A's runs came off Mets starter Carlos Carrasco.
Ramón Laureano singled leading off the second and scored on Conner Capel's groundout. Esteury Ruiz later delivered a two-out single that scored Aledmys Diaz.
Oakland had two runners on with two outs in the eighth, but Ottavino struck out pinch-hitter Ryan Noda swinging.
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Carrasco allowed four hits and hit three batters. He walked one and had three strikeouts.
LOST TRACK OF COUNT
Mets No. 3 hitter Francisco Lindor thought he drew a walk off Fujinami in the sixth and trotted to first base, only to be called back by home plate umpire Scott Barry after A's manager Mark Kotsay came out to protest. Barry briefly conferred with two other umpires, corrected the count to 3-2 and had Lindor return to finish the at-bat. He ended up grounding out to second.
ROSTER MOVES
Mets: RHP Dennis Santana was designated for assignment. RHP Jose Butto and RHP Jimmy Yacabonis were called up from Triple-A Syracuse. Butto is likely to join New York’s rotation after a 1.86 ERA in two starts with Syracuse. Yacabonis is likely to pitch out of the bullpen.
Athletics: LHP Richard Lovelady was recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas and will pitch out of the bullpen. To make room, Oakland optioned LHP Hogan Harris to Las Vegas.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Mets: RHP Stephen Nogosek was placed on the injured list with a right elbow injury. Nogosek was hurt after fielding a comebacker in Friday night’s game.
Athletics: Catcher Shea Langeliers was held out a day after working behind the plate for all nine innings of Friday’s 17-6 loss that took nearly 3½ hours. Langeliers entered Saturday's game as a pinch-runner in the ninth.
UP NEXT
Mets RHP Max Scherzer (2-1, 4.41 ERA) pitches the series finale Sunday looking for his third win in six career starts at Oakland. Scherzer ranks third all-time with 110 double-digit strikeout games in his career. Athletics’ LHP JP Sears (0-1, 5.59) faces the Mets for the second time in his brief career. Sears lasted only 3 2/3 innings and allowed six runs against New York last September.
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