NEW YORK — Outdoors of Pete Alonso, who was an in a single day star in Flushing, and Francisco Alvarez, who would possibly nonetheless turn out to be one, the Mets have routinely watched their most proficient position-player prospects battle to realize footholds on the begins of their careers. For each Alonso, there was an Amed Rosario or a Michael Conforto or a Brett Baty — gamers who had their moments, to make sure, however discovered the trail between the Minors and Majors removed from linear.
Coming into this season, Mark Vientos appeared like a type of gamers. A forgettable cup of espresso in 2022 gave technique to a troublesome ’23 by which he fought for taking part in time, spent extra days within the Minors that he most popular and, in the end, didn’t obtain common reps till the Mets had been properly out of competition. Vientos started this season again at Triple-A, blocked — maybe indefinitely — at his pure place of third base.
All of the whereas, a query lingered: What would it not seem like if he performed day-after-day?
Lastly, this month, the Mets started empowering Vientos to provide an emphatic reply. Since Baty’s shock demotion on the finish of Might, Vientos has began at third base almost day-after-day, proving to be not simply an enough answer there, however one of many extra productive gamers in the complete Nationwide League. His second profession multi-homer effort helped give the Mets a 9-7 win over Gerrit Cole and the Yankees within the Subway Sequence on Tuesday, main them to their 14th victory of their final 18 video games.
Vientos pulled a excessive, arcing 382-foot homer over the left-field fence within the second inning, then lined a 385-foot shot to the alternative subject towards Cole within the fourth. That marked the third consecutive plate look with a homer for Vientos, who additionally went deep in his closing at-bat Sunday at Wrigley Area.
Harrison Bader and Brandon Nimmo homered as properly for the Mets, who’ve hit seven dwelling runs of their final 15 innings. They usually wanted each considered one of them, as Aaron Decide’s eighth-inning grand slam made the sport far nearer than it was for many of the night.