NEW YORK (AP) — Juan Soto hit his first two home runs at Citi Field as a member of the Mets on Thursday afternoon, but the Arizona Diamondbacks earned a 4-2 win to hand New York a rare home series loss.
The Diamondbacks won the final two games of the three-game series — the first time the Mets have lost back-to-back contests at Citi Field since July 27-28, when they fell to the Atlanta Braves.
New York, which is 13-3 at Citi Field this season, had its franchise-record streak of 10 straight home series wins snapped.
Zac Gallen (2-4) allowed only two hits over six innings. He didn’t allow a runner past first base until Soto’s opposite field 391-foot blast with one out in the sixth.
Soto then hit a 399-foot shot to almost the same area of left-centerfield off Kevin Ginkel in the eighth.
Soto entered Thursday batting .241 with four doubles, 10 walks and eight strikeouts in his first 15 home games since signing a 15-year deal worth $765 million last December. He had 12 homers in 35 games at Citi Field as a visiting player.
Ginkel wriggled out of a second-and-third jam in the eighth before Shelby Miller recorded his first save with a 1-2-3 ninth.
Geraldo Perdomo and Tim Tawa each homered for the Diamondbacks, who also received RBIs from Alek Thomas and Eugenio Suárez.
Mets starter Kodai Senga (3-2) gave up one run over four innings.
Key moment
Ginkel struck out Mark Vientos and Brandon Nimmo to strand two and preserve a 3-2 lead in the eighth.
Key stat
The Mets hadn’t lost a series at home since Aug. 13-15, when the then-Oakland Athletics took two of three.
Up next
RHP Merrill Kelly (3-1, 4.41 ERA) starts for the Diamondbacks against the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday, when Mets RHP Clay Holmes (3-1, 2.64) takes the mound against the St. Louis Cardinals.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Jerry Beach, The Associated Press
