Mets takeaways from Tuesday’s 11-10 win against White Sox, including Francisco Alvarez's two home runs

Jul 18, 2023; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez (4) follows through on a two run home run against the Chicago White Sox during the first inning at Citi Field. / Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

The Mets offense exploded for 11 runs and they’d need every single one of them as they defeated the Chicago White Sox, 11-10, on Tuesday night.

Here are the takeaways…

-The Mets came into Tuesday’s game scoring six runs over their last five games, but the offense would get started early. After a Brandon Nimmo leadoff walk, Tommy Pham hit a double down the line and gave the Mets a 1-0 lead. After a wild pitch moved Pham to third and a Francisco Lindor walk, Pete Alonso hit a sacrifice fly — his first this season — to give the Mets a 2-0 lead.

Francisco Alvarez would cap the Mets’ first inning with a two-out, two-run moonshot to left field. Brett Baty followed with a solo shot to straight away center to put the Mets up 5-0. The five runs in the first is the biggest for the Mets this season.

-Lindor lined a double on a first-pitch handing slider to score Nimmo — who walked — in the second inning with two outs to put the Mets up 6-1.

DJ Stewart clubbed a solo shot in the fourth to put the Mets up 7-2, his first home run as a Met. Jeff McNeil would tack on a run with a two-out RBI single that scored Pham and put the Mets up 8-2. All of this came off of Lucas Giolito who came into the game with a 3.45 ERA and the subject of plenty of trade speculation.

The righty gave up eight runs over 3.2 innings on six hits, five walks while striking out five.

– Carlos Carrasco rolled in the first two innings aside from giving up a solo shot to Yasmani Grandal in the second. However, he would get into trouble in the third. After an RBI double by Tim Anderson to make it 6-2 Mets, Luis Robert Jr. hit a single to put runners on the corners. Robert Jr. would steal second but Carrasco struck out Andrew Vaughn and got Jake Burger to fly out and limit the damage.

In the fifth, back-to-back singles to start the inning put Carrasco in trouble once again. After two groundouts that scored a run, Burger lined a double to cut the Mets’ lead to 8-4. Manager Buck Showalter pulled his starter after the double.

Despite being given a large lead, Carrasco simply couldn’t get the outs needed to pick up the win. He lasted just 4.2 innings (82 pitches/50 strikes), giving up four runs on six hits, two walks while striking out five.

– The Mets would pour it on in the sixth. McNeil would drive in his second run of the game with a two-out single. That was followed by Alvarez’s second two-run home run to put the Mets up 11-4.

McNeil finished 2-for-5 with two RBI and a run while Alvarez went 2-for-3 with the two home runs and two walks. It’s the third time this season Alvarez had a multi-homer game. He’s also the

– With Carrasco’s short outing, the bullpen was tasked to get 13 outs and it would be an adventure. Grant Hartwig was the first man out of the pen and he would give up two runs in 1.2 innings pitched.

Trevor Gott would not have a good outing. In the seventh, he gave up three runs on three hits. The inning was exasperated thanks to Baty trying to start a double play but the speedy Anderson wound up safe at second and the Mets could not get an out. Brooks Raley would come in to relieve Gott but allowed an inherited runner to score on a wild pitch. Raley would settle down and get the next two batters out to end the five-run seventh with the Mets still up 11-9.

Adam Ottavino would pitch a clean eighth and David Robertson came in to pitch the ninth. The Mets closer would lead off the inning with a walk, but got Zach Remillard to pop out and Gavin Sheets to line out. to center field. Robertson walked Elvis Andrus and Andrew Benintendi singled to cut the lead to 11-10. Robertson would get Anderson to fly out to secure the win.