![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/solo-home-run-eighth-inning-139667371.jpg\")
New York Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez (4) hits a solo home run during the eighth inning when the New York Mets played the San Francisco Giants on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, at Citi Field. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\nAt Citi Field on Friday was a team that had been dismantled at the trade deadline, clearly a shell of the postseason threat it aspired to be and a club that might not mind the losses mounting considering the draft implications.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That team faced the Mets, who have played their cleanest baseball in garbage time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Giants sold at the trade deadline, batted a player named Turner Hill cleanup in the series opener and are still bottoming out, 10-19 since offloading every piece they could.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 2026 Mets have been a similar and different team, respectively: a big-money bust that threw in the towel, wiped itself off and now is emerging as fresh-faced and competitive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a September matchup featuring two disappointments that are trending in opposite directions, the Mets used five home runs \u2014 two from Francisco Alvarez \u2014 and a gritty night from Nolan McLean to hold off the Giants, 10-6, in front of 29,377 who have been cheering for a team with more life since Aug. 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Mets (64-77) are 13 games under .500 but 17-11 since unloading nearly the entirety of their bullpen plus Clay Holmes, Freddy Peralta and Tyrone Taylor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Each victory brings them a bit closer to possible offseason frustration: Their first-round draft pick would be docked 10 spots (as it was last year) unless they are bad enough and lucky enough to land a top-six selection.\u00a0<\/p>\n
David Stearns would argue each victory brings them closer to the team they want to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez (4) hits a solo home run during the eighth inning when the New York Mets played the San Francisco Giants on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, at Citi Field. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cI am encouraged by what we\u2019ve seen,\u201d the president of baseball operations said before the game. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen continued progression from a lot of players who are going to be here next year and for many years beyond.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that is very encouraging for me and I think lifts the organization as a whole as we head into an offseason and, ultimately, construct our team for \u201927.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Somewhere in the front of their rotation next season will be McLean, who clearly has the stuff to be an ace but showed Friday that he can be effective without his top execution. The National League Rookie of the Year contender \u2014 who acknowledged he wants the award but is not focused on it \u2014 battled through six innings in which he somehow allowed two runs while letting up six hits and walking four.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLucky\u201d was how McLean described his night after managing just two 1-2-3 innings \u2014 the second and sixth, the latter of which he punctuated with a fist-pump upon getting Christian Koss looking at strike three \u2014 and in each other frame he had to survive, the biggest struggle coming in the fifth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/celebrates-getting-sixth-inning-new-139663324.jpg\")
New York Mets pitcher Nolan McLean celebrates getting out of the sixth inning during a game against the San Francisco Giants on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
The Giants loaded the bases without an out, were a swing away from making a lopsided game interesting, but watched McLean strike out Jung Hoo Lee and induce a ground ball double play from Drew Cavanaugh on a play that Marcus Semien made a nice sliding grab and shovel pass to Francisco Lindor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing about him that I have always appreciated,\u201d interim manager Andy Green said, \u201cis he can put himself into some nasty jams and then he finds a ridiculous amount of confidence to work his way out of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Mets bullpen bent, notably when Rafael Devers clubbed a three-run home run against Austin Warren in the eighth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But they had a cushion because the Mets\u2019 attack racked up more home runs (five) than singles (four).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mark Vientos \u2014 reminding that even in a season plagued by injury and inconsistency, he can still crush lefties \u2014 continued his strong work off the injured list with a three-run shot against Matt \u201cTugboat\u201d Wilkinson in the first inning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alvarez and Bo Bichette added a pair in the second to help capsize Wilkinson.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lindor added a two-run shot in the sixth and Alvarez tacked on with his 15th of the year in the eighth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to go out there and finish in the best possible way as I can, both offensively and defensively,\u201d Alvarez, who is still trying, said through interpreter Alan Suriel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At Citi Field on Friday was a team that had been dismantled at the trade deadline, clearly a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1044341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,7697,3689,33900,1266,405,403,1305,5226,5225,85371,5228,5227,1275,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1044340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-francisco-alvarez","tag-francisco-lindor","tag-mark-vientos","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-mets","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-nolan-mclean","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117216806723591322","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1044340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1044341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1044340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1044340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1044340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}