Mark Vientos Powers Mets To 5-1 Win Over Angels With A Pair Of Two-Run Homers

Offense has been tough to come by for the New York Mets so far this season, but Mark Vientos singlehandedly took care of that issue with a pair of home runs to lead the Mets to a 5-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels. The win also featured a brilliant start from Clay Holmes, who pitched 6-2/3 innings of one-run ball to help New York take the rubber game of their three-game set with the Angels. The Mets didn’t score first, however.

Holmes got off to a rough start when he walked Zach Neto and Mike Trout to begin the game, and Jorge Soler picked up Neto with an RBI single. It looked like he would have long day, but he steadied himself and held the Angels scoreless until Luke Weaver and Brooks Raley closed out the game. The 1-0 lead stood until the fourth inning, when the Mets came from behind and took the lead behind offensive hero Mark Vientos, who hit a two-run homer off Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz to give the Mets a 2-1 lead.

Scoring in front of him was Carson Benge, who walked and crossed the plate with the first of his two runs in this one. The game stayed tight at 2-1 until the eighth, when Benge doubled to right to score Brett Baty after Baty was hit by a pitch. Vientos then put the game away with another two-run homer, and the Mets coasted home in one of their first wins of the season that didn’t turn into an inadvertent nail-biter.

This was the first game in a while where the Mets displayed something like a winning formula, as they pitched well, got some timely hitting from Vientos and played mostly solid defense. Whether they can duplicate that formula is another question entirely. This was the first series win the Mets have had since they took two of three against the Minnesota Twins from April 21-23, and before that they had the disastrous 12-game losing streak that sank them to the bottom of the NL East.