Mets blast 4 homers and then
CLEVELAND — This was the plan: pitching and power.
The Mets are hoping their vaunted rotation combined with their home run hitters will get them back to the playoffs and hopefully a chance to finish off a World Series. Friday night showed what a wild ride this could be.
The Mets, who came in with a major league worst two home runs through eight games, crushed four homers and then had to hold on through a shaky bullpen finish for a 6-5 win over the Indians at Progressive Field.
“That’s what got us where we (went) last year, the power,” Terry Collins said. “The power is something we have to have. If we hit homers we have a chance to win games.”
The Mets scored all of their runs off the long ball Friday night.
Michael Conforto, hitting in the No. 3 spot for the first time this season, Yoenis Cespedes, Neil Walker and Alejandro De Aza each homered, the last three coming in the Mets’ five-run fifth inning. Bartolo Colon picked up his first win of the year and his 219th of his career, holding the Indians to two runs on eight hits over 5.1 innings. He tied Pedro Martinez for the secondmost wins by a Dominican-born pitcher. They both trail Juan Marichal and his 243.
But Colon, Collins and the Mets had to sweat out a scary ninth inning. Addison Reed, pitching for the fourth time in the last five games, gave up a two-out home run in the bottom of the ninth before Collins went to closer Jeurys Familia, who has been battling a cold and has pitched in six of the Mets’ nine games.
Collins said he wanted to stay away from Familia. The manager said he’d call on the closer “only if we had a genuine save situation ... GETTY but when they hit the homer, I got to go to him now.”
But Familia struggled with command of his fastball. He allowed a single to Yan Gomes, who took