Giancarlo Stanton Continues to Mash Against Red Sox

Alonso’s Grand Slam Powers Mets to 3-0 Record

WASHINGTON — Pete Alonso twirled his bat when his first career grand slam broke a scoreless tie in the fifth inning, then put his index fingers to his mouth as if hushing the crowd after celebrating with teammates near the plate, propelling the Mets to a 5-0 victory over the Washington Nationals on Saturday night.

Chris Bassitt cruised through six innings in his Mets debut, and New York won its third straight to open Buck Showalter’s tenure as manager. The Mets have outscored Washington by 17-4 and will go for a series sweep Sunday.

• Mets 5, Nationals 0 | Box Score | Play-by-Play •

About 48 hours removed from getting his lower lip bloodied by a pitch — part of a string of Mets who have been plunked during the season’s first three games, leading to a benches-clearing interruption Friday — Alonso sent a 91-mile-per-hour fastball from Joan Adon (0-1) over the fence in left on a 2-1 count.

The Mets loaded the bases with a single and a pair of walks against Adon, whose first big league appearance came on the last day of the 2021 regular season. That brought up Alonso, who hit 53 homers in 2019 as the N.L. Rookie of the Year, and a group of Mets fans near the visiting dugout sang a chorus of his full name.

He took a ball off the face in the ninth inning on opening day, after teammate James McCann had been hit twice earlier. Then Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor got beaned in Game 2, precipitating an on-field confrontation between both clubs and two ejections. A fifth hit-by-pitch came in the third inning Saturday, when Starling Marte was struck by Adon’s looping curveball — but this time, Showalter remained in his dugout, glaring with arms crossed.

A day after former Nationals starter Max Scherzer won his first start for New York, Bassitt — also an All-Star right-hander — did the same.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/09/sports/baseball/yankees-red-sox-mets-nationals.html