QUEENS, NY — A two-run third inning featuring a Pete Alonso RBI single and a Brandon Nimmo sacrifice fly was all the scoring the Mets needed thanks to yet another day of superb pitching, as they completed a three-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays with a 2-1 victory on Sunday afternoon at Citi Field.
“All these games, it’s not like they were blowouts,” Alonso said. “They were super hard-fought games. They were pretty close games, and I’m just really stoked that we were able to come out on top and you could really see the character and the grit when it comes down to crunch time.”
Mets starter David Peterson was limited to just 4.2 innings of work despite allowing just one run on three hits. He allowed nine men to reach base (five walks, one hit batter) and battled a bout of nausea in a fifth inning in which he hit a batter to drive in the Blue Jays’ opening run of the afternoon.
The bullpen combination of Max Kranick, Reed Garrett, AJ Minter, and Edwin Diaz picked up the slack to go 4.1 scoreless innings. while allowing just two Blue Jays to reach second base.
“They’ve been outstanding,” Mets Manager Carlos Mendoza said after the game Sunday. “The confidence of guys coming in, understanding attacking the zone is a priority, and trusting their pitches. They’re doing that.”
New York (6-3) relievers have been lights out to start the season, possessing a 1.29 ERA through 34.2 innings pitched.
The hosts broke through against Blue Jays starter Bowden Francis in the third inning, which proved to be their only runs of the game. Following walks to Hayden Senger and Juan Soto, Alonso knocked in his 11th run of the season with an RBI single to left.
Nimmo drove Soto home with a sacrifice fly to center to make it 2-0.
Things came undone for Peterson in the fifth when he allowed a lead-off double to Tyler Heineman and a two-out walk to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. After walking the Blue Jays slugger, the southpaw walked off the mound and was bent over in obvious discomfort with hands on knees, though he stayed in the game after taking a few warm-up pitches.
“I threw a pitch and got the ball back, and then my vision just went blurry,” Peterson, who felt better after the game, said. “The vision started to come back, and then my stomach turned over on me and I just felt worse with every breath I took. I felt like I got punched in the stomach and was going to throw up.”
He walked Anthony Santander to load the bases, then hit Andres Gimenez with the first pitch to draw Toronto within one. It was the last pitch he threw, as manager Carlos Mendoza turned to Kranick, who got the last out of the frame by getting Alejandro Kirk to pop up to the catcher, Senger, in foul territory.
Kranick went 1.1 scoreless innings, increasing his shutout streak to start the season to seven innings.
“Limiting the damage there, getting out of that jam, attacking the strike zone, using his pitches, not panicking, slowing the game down, going back out there, he was pitch efficient,” Mendoza said of Kranick. “We’ve been running him pretty hard here but, man, he’s been great.”
Despite the Mets running Francis from the game with one out in the sixth and loading the bases, Brett Baty struck out and Jose Siri flew out to leave a golden chance for insurance on the table.
It would not come back to bite them, though, as the Mets’ bullpen remained superb during the early portions of 2025. Following Kranick, Reed Garrett and AJ Minter put up scoreless seventh and eighth innings before Diaz closed things out despite hitting two batters.
“Reed Garrett, coming in, attacking the zone. Minter, probably the best he’s looked as far as stuff-wise goes,” Mendoza said. “Letting it loose, there was life on the fastball, movement on the secondary pitches.”
