The “Get Well” video David Wright received from the Mets on Thursday could be updated to include a continuous loop of recent game highlights.
For a second straight night, the Mets had plenty clicking. From superb starting pitching to an explosive performance from a previously sagging lineup — all stuff that would make a team captain smile, even through painkillers.
“We sent [Wright] a ‘Get Well’ video and he got it — he sent us a text from his bed,” Neil Walker said after the Mets beat the Pirates 6-4 at Citi Field for their second straight victory. “I don’t know how he was feeling, but it was good to hear from him.”
On a day Wright underwent surgery to correct a herniated disk in his neck that likely will end his season, the Mets received 7 ?/? strong innings from Bartolo Colon and hit three home runs to sink the slumping Pirates.
Colon (6-3) took a shutout into the eighth before surrendering two runs. It followed Noah Syndergaard’s gem from Wednesday, when the righty took a shutout bid into the ninth before allowing a run.
“I know with Syndergaard’s outing [Wednesday] night and mine tonight, that really helps out the bullpen because they are a little tired right now,” Colon said.
Curtis Granderson, Walker and Michael Conforto all homered, leading an 11-hit attack. It marked the 12th time this season the Mets hit at least three homers in a game.
The Mets received a scare in the second inning, when Wilmer Flores was drilled in his left hand. He departed the game the next inning, but X-rays were negative. Flores was listed with a left-hand contusion and watched Kelly Johnson play the rest of the game at third base.
“I tried to swing, I went to the cage, but I felt weakness,” said Flores, adding that he expects a return to the lineup in the next 1-2 days.
Walker’s RBI double in the fifth gave the Mets a 6-0 lead and knocked out Juan Nicasio (5-6), who allowed seven hits and two walks.
Walker and Conforto hit back-to-back homers in the third, extending the Mets’ lead to 5-0. Walker, in his return to the lineup after missing the past two games with back soreness, hit a two-run blast for his 14th homer of the season, putting him two behind Yoenis Cespedes for the team lead. Conforto, back in the lineup after missing three starts with a strained left wrist, followed with his 10th homer of the season. It marked the eighth time this year the Mets hit back-to-back homers.
Colon’s third hit of the season, a double to right-center, began the rally. After Granderson moved him to third with a bloop single, Colon rumbled home on Cespedes’ sacrifice fly to put the Mets ahead 2-0.
“I don’t like to run very much, but I imagine the fans have a lot of fun watching me out there running,” Colon said.
Granderson hit a rocket over the fence in right-center leading off for the Mets’ first run. The leadoff homer was Granderson’s 17th with the Mets, breaking the franchise record he shared with Jose Reyes.
Conforto’s lunging catch for the final out of the first inning saved a run. With a runner on second, Jung Ho Kang hit a shot toward the line that Conforto snagged with his body fully airborne.
Watching his lineup score 17 runs over the past two games has given manager Terry Collins some semblance of inner peace after an erratic stretch.
“We have just made better contact,” Collins said. “We hit the balls around the field a little bit better. We put the ball in play a little bit more. We weren’t striking out as much and any time you are putting the ball in play, it has a chance to find a hole. That has been a big difference the last two nights.”