The Mets, for all their drama, have quietly won four straight, moving within a game of .500 (66-67). Jonathan Villar got New York off on the right foot Thursday night, belting the first pitch he saw from Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara for a towering 431-foot homer to right field.
Remarkably, Villar’s Miami counterpart, Miguel Rojas, did the same thing a half-inning earlier, beginning Thursday night with a no-doubter off a 95-mph fastball Carlos Carrasco probably wishes he had back.
Leadoff blasts are a dime a dozen in MLB, but it’s not every day you see each team homer on the very first pitch. In fact, since baseball began tracking pitch counts in 1988, this is the first time it’s happened, according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com.
What’s funny is Rojas and Villar are hardly power hitters. Rojas entered Thursday with a mere seven homers in 447 plate appearances, compared to 16 in 386 trips to the plate for Villar. Three-time MVP and resident “best player alive” Mike Trout revealed in 2019 that he almost never swings at the first pitch. Clearly Rojas and Villar don’t subscribe to that school of thought, though obviously both benefited from their assertiveness Thursday night.
Riding high after Thursday’s 4-3 win, the Mets will look to keep that momentum up this weekend when the struggling Nationals (losers of five straight) visit Citi Field for the final time in 2021.
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