EditorsNote: Tweaks to 1st and 3rd grafs
Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso and Dominic Smith each homered Wednesday night as the host New York Mets overcame a two-homer performance by the Washington Nationals' Juan Soto in a 11-6 win.
Soto drove in four of Washington's runs, including three in the top of the first inning when he clouted a 466-foot shot that cleared the seats in the upper deck in right field. It was longest homer of Soto's three-year major league career.
But New York countered Soto's first homer with a four-run rally in the first that Nimmo initiated with a leadoff homer to right, and the Mets put the game away with a five-run sixth inning.
Jeurys Familia (1-0), the third of seven Mets pitchers, fanned four in two scoreless innings to earn the win. New York used reliever Robert Gsellman for his first major league start. He lasted two innings, yielding four hits and three runs with no walks and a strikeout.
Anibal Sanchez (0-3) endured his third straight rough start, puffing his earned run average up to 9.69. In lasting just 2 2/3 innings, Sanchez permitted six hits and five runs, walking two and whiffing two.
Sanchez couldn't make a three-run advantage last an inning. After Nimmo's homer, the Mets pieced together three straight two-out hits to put them ahead for good. Alonso and Smith collected RBI doubles, and Andres Gimenez slapped a run-scoring single to cap the outburst.
Wilson Ramos chased Sanchez with a two-out RBI single in the third. Soto drew the Nationals within 5-4 in the sixth when he cracked a 406-foot homer off lefty reliever Justin Wilson.
However, New York responded with the game-sealing rally. Michael Conforto delivered a two-run double, followed by Alonso's two-run blast to left, his third of the year. Smith followed with his third homer of the season.
Starlin Castro drilled a solo shot for Washington in the eighth, and Smith finished the Mets' scoring with an RBI groundout in their half of the eighth. Kurt Suzuki unloaded a solo homer in the ninth for the Nationals.
--Field Level Media
