Mets bash way to 4th win in row

MINNEAPOLIS — With one powerful swing, Pete Alonso proved for now his safety from Home Run Derby harm.

Alonso and the New York Mets put quite the hurt on the Minnesota Twins to sweep this two-game series.

Dominic Smith put the Mets in front with his pinch-hit, three-run homer in the seventh inning, and the rookie All-Star Alonso added a 474-foot moonshot halfway up the third deck in a 14-4 victory on Wednesday that stuck the Twins with their first three-game losing streak this season.

“That one felt good. Hopefully I can hit some farther than that,” said Alonso, who watched his homer the whole way. “It’s not every day you hit one like that.”

Amed Rosario went 4 for 4 with a home run and three RBIs for the Mets, who set a 2019 high for runs and matched a season best with their fourth consecutive victory. All of the wins have been on the road for the Mets, who at 21-32 still have the worst record away from home in the NL.

Though the Mets already had blown open the game against Twins relievers Trevor May (3-3) and Matt Magill by that point, the two-run drive by Alonso was ultimately their most remarkable of the humid afternoon, longer than any of the 57 homers he hit in the derby in Cleveland last week. That also was the first post-derby long ball by Alonso, who emerged from the break in a 1-for-17 slide until his 31st homer.

Alonso also now has the Mets record of 54 extrabase hits in a rookie season, with 67 games still to go.

The Twins took a fivegame lead on Cleveland into the afternoon, their smallest advantage in the AL Central standings since May 19, and they produced some untimely sloppiness. Left fielder Eddie Rosario dropped a routine fly at the warning track for a two-base, twoout, two-run error in the six-run eighth, giving the Twins six errors and 11 unearned runs in five games since the All-Star break. Rosario said afterward he lost track in the sun as the ball approached his glove.

Seven of the runs scored by the Mets were unearned, including one of the two against Twins starter Martin Perez due to an off-target throw by third baseman Miguel Sano in the fourth inning that allowed Alonso to reach on a routine grounder. Nelson Cruz and Mitch Garver, who gave the Twins a 3-2 lead with his15th homer in the fifth, went deep against Mets starter Jason Vargas (4-5), who finished six innings for the victory.