Yoenis Cespedes hit three home runs, including a grand slam, and had a career-high seven RBIs, and the New York Mets overpowered the Colorado Rockies 14-9 on Friday night.
Travis d’Arnaud and Michael Conforto also had home runs in the seventh inning in the Mets’ first five-homer game since Sept. 5, 2014, against Cincinnati.
Cespedes led off the eighth with a chance to tie the major league record for most home runs in a game. He singled off reliever Tommy Kahnle for his fifth hit of the game, a career best.
He came up again with two outs in the ninth to face Rafael Betancourt and hit a drive to right-center field that Carlos Gonzalez had to chase down near the warning track, making a running catch.
In all, there were eight home runs in the game. Colorado’s Gonzalez, Ben Paulsen and Nolan Arenado also homered on a night when the ball was flying out of Coors Field.
Arenado’s three-run homer off Bartolo Colon in the fourth was his 30th of the season. Nick Hundley finished a homer shy of the cycle.
Cespedes, acquired by New York from Detroit in a trade deadline deal July 31, began the power display with a slam off rookie Jon Gray in the Mets’ six-run second inning, helping New York take a 7-1 lead. It was the second slam of his career. His first came on April 19th for Detroit against the Chicago White Sox.
He led off the fourth with his second homer, this one off reliever Christian Bergman and his third, a two-run shot off Christian Friedrich, snapped an 8-8 tie in the sixth.
Cespedes has hit five home runs since joining the Mets and has 23 home runs overall.
It was the third time this season a Mets player has hit three home runs in a game. Lucas Duda was the last to accomplish the feat on July 29 against San Diego.
Both starters had a rough night. Colon was hit by a pitch on his right hand in the second when he squared to bunt. He was checked by team trainers and remained in the game but went just 3 2-3 innings, allowing seven runs and nine hits, including all three of Colorado’s home runs.
Jon Gray, who held the Mets to one run in a six-inning outing that resulted in a no-decision on Aug. 10, couldn’t get out of the second this time around. He gave up seven runs and eight hits in 1 2-3 innings.
Sean Gilmartin (2-1) picked up the win with 2 1/3 innings of solid relief. Friedrich (0-4), who gave up the tiebreaking shot to Cespedes, took the loss.
New York Colorado
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Granderson rf 5 1 2 1 Blackmon cf 4 1 2 0
Dan.Murphy 3b-1b 4 2 1 2 Reyes ss 5 0 0 0
Cespedes cf-lf 6 5 5 7 Ca.Gonzalez rf 4 3 2 1
Duda 1b 4 0 1 1 Arenado 3b 5 3 3 4
Robles p 0 0 0 0 Paulsen 1b 5 1 1 1
Cuddyer ph 1 0 0 0 LeMahieu 2b 5 1 2 2
Lagares cf 0 0 0 0 Hundley c 3 0 3 1
W.Flores ss 5 0 2 1 B.Barnes lf 4 0 0 0
K.Johnson 2b 4 1 2 0 J.Gray p 0 0 0 0
d’Arnaud c 5 1 1 1 Bergman p 1 0 0 0
Conforto lf 4 2 1 1 K.Parker ph 1 0 0 0
Clippard p 0 0 0 0 Friedrich p 0 0 0 0
Familia p 0 0 0 0 Germen p 0 0 0 0
B.Colon p 1 1 0 0 Kahnle p 0 0 0 0
Gilmartin p 1 0 0 0 McBride ph 1 0 0 0
Uribe ph-3b 2 1 1 0 Betancourt p 0 0 0 0
Totals 42 14 16 14 Totals 38 9 13 9
New York 160 102 211—14
Colorado 112 310 100—9
E_W.Flores (11). DP_New York 1. LOB_New York 7, Colorado 6. 2B_Cespedes (6), W.Flores (19), Uribe (11), Blackmon (26), Arenado 2 (31), Hundley (18). 3B_Hundley (5). HR_Cespedes 3 (5), d’Arnaud (7), Conforto (3), Ca.Gonzalez (29), Arenado (30), Paulsen (9). SB_Granderson (10), Cespedes (4), Blackmon 2 (33). S_Bergman. SF_Dan.Murphy.
IP H R ER BB SO
New York
B.Colon 3 2-3 9 7 7 2 1
Gilmartin W,2-1 2 1-3 2 1 1 0 3
Robles 1 2 1 1 0 1
Clippard 1 0 0 0 1 1
Familia 1 0 0 0 0 1
Colorado
J.Gray 1 2-3 8 7 7 1 0
Bergman 3 1-3 2 1 1 0 1
Friedrich L,0-4 1 1 2 2 1 0
Germen 1 2 2 2 1 1
Kahnle 1 2 1 1 1 1
Betancourt 1 1 1 1 0 0
HBP_by J.Gray (B.Colon). Balk_Robles.
Umpires_Home, Ryan Blakney; First, Paul Schrieber; Second, Fieldin Culbreth; Third, Manny Gonzalez.
T_3:34. A_31,079 (50,398).
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