Mets 10, Giants 6: Alvarez Homers Twice as New York Goes Deep Five Times

Five balls left the yard. The game never really came back.

September 4, 2026 - New York - Matt Wilkinson, a rookie, threw the first pitch of a series between two clubs that sold at the deadline. Mark Vientos hit a three-run homer before the first inning closed. Francisco Alvarez went deep twice. Bo Bichette and Francisco Lindor added one each. The New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants 10-6 at Citi Field.

New York scored 10 runs for the second straight game and matched its season high for home runs. The Mets also did that on May 14 against Detroit and August 22 at the White Sox. Friday was louder than a September game between two disappointments had any right to be.

Rafael Devers almost made it a fight by himself. He doubled twice, homered, and drove in five. It was not enough.

Vientos in the first, Alvarez in the second

Vientos' three-run shot off Wilkinson was his second homer in four games since he came back from a nearly two-month injured list stay with a broken right hand. 3-0, and the Mets were already swinging from a lead.

Alvarez's first homer was an opposite-field drive in the second. It was his first since August 9. In between he had batted .125 (7-for-56) with two doubles. The second homer made it his third two-homer game of the season and the eighth of his career. He is 24. He also went deep twice behind Nolan McLean on April 3 in San Francisco in a 10-3 win. The pairing has a habit.

Bichette capped a four-run second with a homer. He is batting .309 with 10 homers and 40 RBI in his last 78 games. Lindor had two hits, his first multi-hit game since August 25, and added a homer of his own. Juan Soto walked, stole a base, and drove in a run without a hit. Carson Benge stole one too.

Wilkinson lasted three innings: seven runs, four earned, five hits. Yunior Marte threw the last five and allowed three more runs and two more homers. The Giants' night was a two-man pitching staff trying to cover a five-homer beating.

McLean's 105 pitches

McLean went six innings, allowed two runs and six hits, struck out seven, and walked four. He threw a career-high 105 pitches. He is 11-8. The Associated Press notes he is 9-4 with a 2.24 ERA in his past 17 starts.

He was not spotless. Devers doubled in two off him. The walks piled up. McLean still handed a 9-2 game to the bullpen after six, which is the version of this Mets season that has shown up after the deadline. They are playing cleaner baseball than the first four months suggested they would.

Austin Warren allowed Devers' three-run homer. Jefry Yan and Robert Stock had to work through the eighth. Kodai Senga threw a scoreless ninth. The 10-6 final looks sloppy. The first six innings were a rout.

Devers, 33 homers, and a sold-off lineup

Devers finished 3-for-4 with a walk, two doubles, a homer, and five RBI. His 33 homers are the most by a Giant since Barry Bonds hit 45 in 2004. That is a real sentence in a 10-6 loss, and it is why San Francisco's night still belongs in the Friday leaderboard.

Turner Hill, batting cleanup in a series opener for a club that is 10-19 since it sold, added an RBI single. Jonah Cox had two hits and two runs. The Giants had 12 hits and left 11 on base. They scored two in the third, one in the seventh, and three in the eighth. Traffic without a finishing kick.

The Mets hit nine times and left four on base. That is the difference between five homers and a messy 12-hit night that still loses.

Two clubs going opposite directions

San Francisco looks like a team playing out the string. New York looks like a team that decided garbage time was optional. Five homers will do that for a weekend.

Anthony Molina (2-0, 3.77) starts Saturday against Zac Thornton (3-4, 2.93). The Mets will try to do this again. The Giants will try to keep Devers from being the entire offense.

AthX Engine angle

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Devers at 14 hitting FP, third among Friday's hitters even in a loss. Alvarez had 12. Bichette and Lindor each checked in at 10 and 8. McLean had 15 pitching FP. The Mets posted 17 team FP, third on the slate behind Toronto and Cleveland.

Fantasy points measure what a player did under platform scoring rules. Share prices also respond to market activity through dynamic pricing.

Citi Field got the fireworks. The board noticed.

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*Sources: ESPN recap and box score, AP recap via ABC, MLB.com schedule, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*