Mets Sweep Away Twins to Extend Win Streak to Four Games

METS 14 - TWINS 4 

They might eventually be sellers in 13 days, but that is not going to stop the New York Mets from making things a little interesting in the meantime.

Behind mammoth home runs by Dominic Smith and Pete Alonso, the Mets demolished the Minnesota Twins 14-4, sweeping a two game series in Minneapolis from the AL Central leaders. The Mets wound up winning the season series against Minnesota 3-1. More importantly the win is the fourth in a row for a Mets club that finds itself still with a slight pulse in the National League wild card race. 

he Mets trailed the Twins 3-2 before exploding for three runs in the top of the seventh inning, in what would become the beginning of a 12-run rally by New York over the final three innings of Wednesday's matinee. 

With Amed Rosario and Andy Hechavarria on base with one out, Dominic Smith crushed a Trevor May curveball into the right field overhang at Target Field to push the Mets into a 5-3 lead. The homer was Smith's ninth of the year, as the Mets back-up first baseman and outfielder continues to produce in big spots when called upon. Smith is now hitting .294 on the season. 

As we said that was only just the beginning. An inning later the Mets plated six runs thanks in big part to the Twins playing kickball, or better known as committing a hideous error that changed the face of the game.

With two men on and two out in the top of the eighth, a fly ball by Hechavarria was dropped by left fielder Eddie Rosario, who treated the fly ball like a routine can of corn. Instead Robinson Cano and Rosario scored to push the Mets lead to 7-3.  The small opening left by Minnesota soon turned into a gapping hole that the Mets took full advantage of.

Jeff McNeil followed Hechavarria with an RBI double to right to make it 8-3. Next, Dom Smith drove in his fourth run of the afternoon on a sharp single to left, before Pete Alonso broke out of his post All-Star Game slump by launching a pitch to the moon, literary. Alonso's two run blast to left landed 10-rows back in the upper deck of Target Field, a recorded 474 feet from home plate. 

Leading 11-4 apparently wasn't enough for New York. The Mets tacked on three more runs in the ninth on a two-run double by Rosario and an RBI double by Hechavarria to cap off the scoring at 14-4.

While the offensive barrage was nice to see, the most important stat of the day belongs to the Mets pitching staff. Over the past four games the Mets have pitched extremely well with the starters posting a combined ERA of 3.27, and the bullpen -- a surprising -- 1.29 ERA in this stretch. The sweep of the Twins is the Mets second consecutive series victory on the road, something this team has not done since the very first week of the season when they won two of three from the Washington Nationals and swept the Miami Marlins. 

At 45-51, the Mets still -- as unlikely, and as unrealistically as it may seem -- still have a shot to get into contention this year. They are only five back of the Brewers and Phillies for the last wild card slot. Granted they do have to leapfrog nine teams in the process. Asked after the game if he felt this team still had a shot at the postseason, manager Mickey Callaway said, "It's still within the realm of possibility and that is what we are focusing on." 

The Mets open up a four-game series in San Francisco tomorrow night against a Giants team that also believes it can put together an unlikely run at the wild card.