NEW YORK -- Three games cannot make up for the 56 that came before them. It would be a significant stretch, heading into June, to call the Mets a good offensive team.
But when Juan Soto’s grand slam soared over the right-center-field fence at Citi Field in the sixth inning Sunday, it became possible to see a glimmer of hope. In a sweep of the Marlins, including a 10-1 victory in Sunday’s finale, the Mets scored 25 runs. It was by far their gaudiest output in a three-game series this season, nearly surpassing the totals they put up during four-game series against the Giants and Nationals earlier this year.
Every Mets starter reached base safely at least once, and eight of the nine scored at least one run, with Soto’s sixth-inning grand slam leading the team-wide attack. Carson Benge also led off the game with a homer, and Marcus Semien hit a two-run shot for the Mets, who have won four straight overall.
“The whole lineup came ready to attack,” Soto said.
The Mets were already leading by five runs when Soto stepped to the plate after rookie Josh White walked the bases loaded in the sixth. He bashed a hanging slider over the fence for his ninth home run in his last 15 games, and with that, the rout was on.
Nolan McLean pitched the first five innings for the win, navigating around five walks and a hit batsman, while David Peterson -- recently demoted to the bullpen -- did the rest for his first career regular-season save. (He had previously notched one during the 2024 National League Wild Card Series.) The Mets also benefitted from another fine catch by A.J. Ewing, who ran into the center-field fence in pursuit of a potential run-scoring double in the fourth.
But it was the offense that made everything seem breezy. After plating just two runs over three games in Miami last weekend, the Mets outdid themselves back home by a factor of more than 12. According to several of them, they focused intently on a series of adjustments made after that first series with regards to this particular opponent.
Throughout the weekend, the Mets hunted fastballs in the strike zone but tried to swing only at the ones they could handle. Semien’s homer was a perfect example, coming on a 95 mph first-pitch sinker on the inner half of the plate.
“That’s what I love about this game,” he said. “We have basically eight months to work as hard as we possibly can to get to a point where we’re playing in the game and the ball slows down a little bit and your swing is right.”
The sequence leading up to Soto’s homer was another fine example. With two outs and no one on base, Semien walked, Luis Torrens was hit by a pitch, Benge drew another walk and Bo Bichette -- a notorious free swinger -- did the same, fouling off multiple two-strike pitches before finding one he could handle.
“We had a tough series against the same team last weekend, when basically we didn’t do anything offensively,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “For us to make that adjustment quickly and put up that type of performance the whole weekend, it was just good to see.”
The degree of difficulty should ratchet up significantly this week, when the Mets take on the Mariners and their fifth-ranked pitching staff by ERA in Seattle. But the type of at-bats the Mets put together against the Marlins will play against any team, provided they can demonstrate the type of consistency they’ve yet to all season. No one around Flushing doubts Soto’s ability to keep depositing baseballs over fences. It’s the rest of the Mets who must stay sharp.
Entering this series, the Mets ranked 27th in the Majors in runs per game, with players such as Bichette and Semien notoriously struggling. For one weekend, at least, they managed to look like one of the game’s better offenses -- something they expected to be before the season started.
“Everybody knows what to do,” Soto said. “We had a plan and we executed throughout the whole series.”
Now they have to do it for a week, a fortnight, a month or more. If they can, the rest of the season will look a whole lot different.