Kirk Nieuwenhuis
homers twice and drives in three runs as the Mets finish off a sweep of the Rays at St. Petersburg, Fla., with a 9-6 victory. Jason Bay also homered for New York.
St. Petersburg, Fla. — The New York Mets have rebounded nicely after an unsuccessful Subway Series. Kirk Nieuwenhuis hit a leadoff homer and later connected for a two-run shot, and the Mets completed a three-game sweep by beating the Tampa Bay Rays 9-6 on Thursday.
“Hopefully we can keep that momentum going,” Nieuwenhuis said.
Jason Bay also homered and Lucas Duda drove in three runs for the Mets, who were swept in a three-game series by the New York Yankees last weekend.
“You’ve got to be able to forget what the last series was and go play,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “Continue to grind it out.”
The Mets outscored Tampa Bay 29-9 in this series.
“I thought it was tremendous by our guys,” Collins said. “You come in and face the best pitching in the American League and put up runs like we did.”
Johan Santana (4-3) allowed four runs and six hits over five-plus innings. Frank Francisco struck out Ben Zobrist with the bases loaded on a 3-2 pitch to end it.
“I think we caught this team on fire,” Zobrist said.
Nieuwenhuis began the afternoon with a home run off Jeremy Hellickson (4-3). Nieuwenhuis homered again during a four- run fourth, helping the Mets take an 8-4 lead. It was his first career multihomer game.
Hellickson gave up a career-high eight runs and nine hits in 3 2-3 innings. The reigning AL Rookie of the Year, 0-3 over his last five starts, has allowed more than three earned runs in just five of 46 career starts.
“They didn’t miss too many mistakes,” Hellickson said. “I left some changeups up and they just didn’t miss bad pitches. I just made too many mistakes.”
Jon Rauch replaced Santana with the bases loaded and no outs in the sixth and worked out of the jam by striking out Sean Rodriguez and pinch-hitter Jose Labaton, and then getting a grounder from Elliot Johnson.