New York Mets SP Clay Holmes | Photo by Gabrielle Raucci, On NJ Sports
New York Mets SP Clay Holmes | Photo by Gabrielle Raucci, On NJ Sports
May 3, 2026

May Mets take two of three in series win over Angels

By Gabrielle Raucci
Baseball , Carson Benge , clay holmes , LGM , Major League Baseball , Mark Vientos , May Mets , Mets , Mets Out West , MLB , New York Mets , NYM , Pulchritudinous , The Kiln

Mets Click with Pitching, Offense, and Defense in Series Win in Anaheim

There was a version of this team, not two weeks ago, that looked incapable of clawing back from a deficit. The lineups were passive, the at-bats were clunky, and the bottom of the order was a serious question mark.

 

But New York took two of three in Anaheim by finally playing the kind of complete baseball they’ve been chasing all season, with pitching, defense, and timely offense all locking in together. It was clean, efficient, and controlled – the exact formula this roster was built to execute.

It looks as though the Mets are firing on all cylinders with the synergy that has shown only in spots since Opening Day.

Scott Sets the Tone

What the Mets showed in Anaheim in the first game of their series against the Angels was something different – a competence in the trenches, an ability to manufacture runs that the lineup construction had been designed to deliver but hadn’t yet fully delivered.
 
Christian Scott was the architect of game one. He dealt to the tune of 8K, keeping the Angels’ lineup off-balance while the offense found ways to scratch across runs in bunches.

 

Mauricio’s Moment

Game one belonged to Ronny Mauricio. His game-winning home run in the seventh was the kind of hit that reminds you why this lineup has the ceiling it does – when players execute in pressure situations, runs materialize in ways they couldn’t when the approach was purely wait-and-see.

 

The Mets lost Mauricio to injury (fracture) after he slid awkwardly into first base in the second game of the series. Though it was a development that stings in ways beyond the immediate, it was punctuated in extras with an Oswald Peraza walk-off in game two.
 
Still, the resilience with which they answered back to take the series in game three was telling of what’s been brewing for this club in May.

 

Holmes, Vientos, and a Series Win

Clay Holmes opened Sunday as ugly as you can open a start and still escape largely unscathed. He needed 27 pitches to get through the first inning – the most he’d thrown in any frame this season – walking the first two batters he faced before Jorge Soler’s single put the Angels on the board.
 
What saved him, characteristically, was the ground ball: Jo Adell rolled into an inning-ending double play.

 

From there, Holmes was untouchable.

 

He retired 12 of his final 15 batters, cruising through 6.2 innings of one-run baseball on 99 pitches. Final line: 6.2 IP | 4 H | 1 ER | 3 BB | 6 K | 1.69 ERA.

Pulchritudinous Benge and the Mets’ Defensive Clinic

The defense he referenced was also omnipresent. MJ Melendez made a disgusting diving catch in the sixth, while Bo Bichette made the long throw to erase pressure in the seventh.

 

 

In the seventh, Carson Benge leapt at the right-field wall to rob a sure extra-base hit.

 

Then, in the ninth, he laid out to his left on a tailing fly ball in a play that prompted Gary Cohen – a man not typically given to theatrical vocabulary in call selection – to describe it as, simply, “pulchritudinous.” (That’s about as high a compliment as you’re going to get from the SNY booth).
Benge finished the day 1-for-2 with an RBI double, two runs, and two walks. His walk in the fourth set the table for what became the Mets’ first lead of the afternoon.

 

Swaggy V for Two

Mark Vientos made that walk count by launching a two-run shot 427 feet into the Angel Stadium seats to put New York ahead 2–1.
 
(But he wasn’t done).
 
In the eighth, with Benge aboard after an RBI double (to score Brett Baty), Vientos punished another mistake for his second two-run homer of the day, pushing the final to 5–1.
His last four hits have all gone for extra bases. Vientos is slashing .250/.297/.440 with four home runs and is hitting .275 with a .891 OPS over his last 12 games.

 

Luke Weaver and Brooks Raley were excellent in relief, shutting the door to secure the final game of the series at 5-1. It was exactly the kind of comprehensive, complementary effort – starter sets the tone, lineup manufactures runs with situational hitting, defense erases mistakes, bullpen closes the door – that this roster was built to produce.

About the Author

Gabrielle Raucci
Lead Writer, New York Mets

Gabrielle Raucci is the New York Mets Lead Writer at ONNJ Sports, serving as your primary source for all coverage from Flushing, Queens.

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