NEW YORK — Mark Vientos gave the Mets two more reasons to keep believing in him on Wednesday at Citi Field. Despite the Mets pitchers’ best efforts to give the game away, the 24-year-old hitter hit the third multi-home run game of his career.
In the Mets’ 7-6 loss to the A’s, Vientos hit two of five home runs, two of which traveled nearly 800 feet, but that wasn’t enough for his team to win the series against the AL’s second-worst team, especially after the pitchers blew a 5-0 lead.
“He played a good game, two home runs the other way,” a somber Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said after the game. “But at the end of the day, we didn’t win.”
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Vientos’ first home run, a 400-footer into the bullpen, put the Mets up 3-0. It was a beautiful display of what Carlos Beltran told NJ Advance Media were the infielder’s strengths: power to right-center field.
After a control-challenged Jose Quintana allowed a grand slam to A’s center fielder JJ Bleday – his first ever – that nearly blew a 5-0 lead, Vientos hit a second home run, also going 371 feet the other way and hitting the net above the right-field wall.
The first time Vientos had a multi-home run game this season was against Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, a fact that didn’t go unnoticed by his teammate, Mets DH JD Martinez, who many consider a hitting guru.
“He plays with grit, goes out there and fights, has confidence in the box and is not afraid of anyone,” Martinez said. “That’s something you want to see. That’s something I’ve seen in a lot of good players, they’re there when the dogs are on the hill. You have to have that in you.”
In the end, the Mets pitchers overshadowed Vientos’ big day with their poor performances, especially Quintana and relievers Huascar Brazobán and Reed Garrett. Together, they allowed seven runs on 11 hits and seven walks in six innings.
That resulted in the Mets’ fifth loss in their last six games and dropped them even further behind the Braves, who are two games ahead of the third Wild Card spot. Now they should really be winning games against the A’s and then the Marlins, two teams that can’t compete for anything.
“I think we’ve been going really well the last few months. And it’s just not realistic that we’re going to ride that wave until the end of the season,” Vientos said, looking back on the last six games. “I think we just have to keep getting our wins here and there and then we’ll have a winning streak pretty soon to finish the season. That’s my feeling, for sure.”
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You can reach Manny Gómez at [email protected].
