Jeff McNeil doubles in go-ahead run, Mets beat Padres 7-5 to win 6th straight

SAN DIEGO — Jeff McNeil doubled in Starling Marte with the go-ahead run on the first pitch of the 10th inning and the New York Mets extended their winning streak to a season-high six games by beating the San Diego Padres 7-5 on Friday night in a matchup of high-priced, underperforming teams.

McNeil’s grounder off rookie Tom Cosgrove (1-2) went just inside the line past diving first baseman Jake Cronenworth and into right field to bring in Marte, the automatic runner. Francisco Alvarez followed with his fourth straight single to score McNeil, the 2022 NL batting champion.

The Mets added on with a two-run single by Francisco Lindor, who had three hits and three RBIs as he followed up his first career five-hit game the night before.

Lindor homered off Yu Darvish in the third to pull the Mets to 3-2. It was his 19th. Daniel Vogelbach’s third single off Darvish tied it at 3 in the fifth. He also had an RBI single in the first.

The Mets had the bases loaded with one out in the ninth before Nick Martinez got Marte to bounce into a 1-2-3 double play.

“This was a big win for us,” McNeil said. “We fought back on that one, battled all night and it feels good to that one. They’re playing well, we’re playing well, close in the standings. We need to keep playing good baseball. We’re doing that right now. We need to keep it up, finish the first half strong and take that momentum into the second half.”

Drew Smith (4-3) pitched the ninth for the win.

Manny Machado hit a two-run homer for the Padres in the 10th, his 13th.

The Padres dropped to 0-8 in extra-inning games. They were coming off their first three-game sweep of the season, against two-way All-Star Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels.

The teams came in with 41-46 records and buried in fourth place in their respective divisions. The Mets have baseball’s biggest payroll at around $360 million and the Padres are third at about $250 million.

The Padres had World Series aspirations after reaching the NL Championship Series. Along the way, they eliminated the 101-win Mets in a wild-card series and the 111-win Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS. They signed shortstop Xander Bogaerts to a $280 million, 11-year contract and welcomed back Fernando Tatis Jr. from an 80-game doping suspension, but have struggled offensively.

The Mets went on a jaw-dropping spending spree under owner Steve Cohen, but their bullpen has been an issue after Edwin Diaz was lost before the season to a knee injury.

The Padres went ahead 2-1 in the first when Machado hit an RBI double off Justin Verlander with two outs and then hustled home on third baseman Luis Guillorme’s fielding error. Guillorme made an impressive leaping catch of Gary Sanchez’s line drive in the sixth.

Trent Grisham’s RBI double in the second gave San Diego a 3-1 lead.

Darvish, who had been sidelined by an illness for just more than two weeks, allowed three runs and seven hits in five innings.

Verlander, making just his third career start against the Padres, gave up three runs, two earned, and five hits in six innings.

The Mets were coming off a 9-0 laugher at Arizona.

“I think we need to start going on a little bit of a streak,” Verlander said. “Some games are like yesterday’s and some games are like today’s. You get some games to go your way. It seems like a lot of things haven’t been going our way so it’s nice to see that change around a little bit.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Padres: 2B Ha-Seong Kim was replaced by Roughned Odor opening the ninth. Kim jammed his right big toe kicking a water cooler in frustration after he was thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple with the score tied in the seventh. Juan Soto then doubled but Fernando Tatis Jr. flied out to end the inning.

UP NEXT

Mets LHP David Peterson (2-6, 6.61 ERA) and Padres LHP Blake Snell (5-7, 3.03) are scheduled to start Saturday night.