MINNEAPOLIS — — Juan Soto hit his first home run since the opening weekend of the season and the New York Mets beat the slumping Minnesota Twins 5-1 on Monday night.
Pete Alonso and Luisangel Acuña had two hits apiece for the Mets, who have won nine of 11. Alonso delivered an early RBI single, and Acuña stole a base and scored twice while reaching safely three times from the No. 9 spot in the batting order.
Minnesota (5-12) finished with three hits on a damp and chilly evening and tied a season high with 13 strikeouts.
With the Mets up 3-1 in the seventh inning and a runner on, Soto drilled a changeup from Jorge Alcala into the front row of seats in right-center for his first home run since March 28 in Houston.
One inning earlier, Mark Vientos doubled home Alonso with the tiebreaking run. Vientos scored two batters later on a throwing error by reliever Justin Topa (0-1) to make it 3-1.
Clay Holmes (2-1) allowed just two hits while striking out eight in five innings for the Mets. He breezed through his first four frames, but two walks and a hit batter loaded the bases for Minnesota with no outs in the fifth. The Twins managed just one run on a sacrifice fly by Christian Vázquez.
Minnesota is hitting .203, the second-lowest mark in the American League.
Twins starter Joe Ryan needed 101 pitches to labor through five innings, allowing one run and striking out eight.
In the past seven games, Minnesota starters are 2-1 with a 0.96 ERA. They’ve struck out 36 batters, walked seven and allowed just one home run. Yet the team is 2-5.
Key moment
After the Mets took a 3-1 lead in the sixth, reliever Huascar Brazobán need just nine pitches to retire three Twins in the bottom of the inning.
Key stat
Excluding seasons impacted by COVID-19, the attendance of 10,240 was the lowest since Target Field opened in 2010.
Up next
Mets RHP Tylor Megill (2-1, 0.63 ERA) starts the middle game of the series Tuesday night against RHP Bailey Ober (0-1, 7.11).
——
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
