That ball in your front yard was hit by Ronny Mauricio as Mets beat Rockies with power and pitching

Mets 8 Rockies 1 (Coors Field, Denver, CO)

Mets record: 41-24

Mets streak: Won 2

WP - Clay Holmes (7-3)

LP - German Marquez (4-8)

Seat on the Korner:

We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.

Ronny Mauricio got his first hit in his major league redux last night, and tonight he hit his first home run of the season in the same deck where you get $3 beers before the game. That 456 foot monster gave the Mets a 1-0 lead, and he would finish up at 2-for-4 with two runs and a stolen base to lead the Mets' charge to victory.

Need to Know

• The Mets are now 11-3 in their last 13 games, and they're now at their season high of 17 games over .500.

• The Mets win combined with the Phillies loss puts them 3.5 games clear of the rest of the N.L. East.

• The Mets are now 5-0 against the Rockies this season.

• Francisco Lindor returned to the starting lineup for the first time since being diagnosed with a broken toe. He would wind up 3-for-5 with two stolen bases before being pulled for a pinch runner in the 8th. It's Lindor's 9th three hit game of the season.

• Clay Holmes danced around trouble all night but came out mostly clean. giving up a run on Ryan McMahon's homer, nine hits in total, striking out six and not walking a batter.

• Jared Young's home run in the 5th inning gave the Mets the lead for good. Mauricio and Young's homers gave the 8th and 9th hitters home runs for the 6th time in Mets history.

• Juan Soto played his 1,000th career MLB game tonight. He walked once and scored a run.

Turning Point

Ryan McMahon had just tied the game for the Rockies in the bottom of the 4th off Clay Holmes. But the Mets would rally in the very next inning, starting with tonight's turning point: Jared Young's solo home run to lead off the 5th.

The Mets wouldn't look back after that.

Three Keys

Can I Get A Pitching Lab For My House?

You give up 9 hits in Coors Field, chances are that your ERA is going to rise to the heavens in the thin air. But Clay Holmes, going against conventional wisdom and going heavy with the off sliders and sweepers in the high altitude, escaped trouble ... most notably in the first inning when a Brett Baty misplay put runners on first and third with nobody out.

The Mets Are Impervious To Your Cutesy Moves

The Mets were supposed to see Carson Palmquist tonight, but Warren Schaeffer didn't want Palmquist to face the Mets twice in a week, so he pushed Palmquist back to Tuesday and moved German Marquez up to face the Mets tonight. It didn't work, as Marquez gave up four runs on 8 hits in five innings, and that included three solo home runs.

It seems like the kind of move that a manager makes for a contending team. Is it worse to have a pitcher face the same team twice than having him pitch on nine days rest? Does it really matter when you're about to lose 167 games this season? Thankfully, it didn't matter to the Mets.

Blow Up And Blow Out

With the Mets bullpen thin, a blowout was exactly what the Mets needed. a three run 7th along with a Brandon Nimmo tack-on RBI in the 8th made sure that Carlos Mendoza didn't have to tax any of the big guns out of the pen as Jose Butto and Jose Castillo finished off the game for Mendoza and Holmes.