Frankie Montas allowed one run while pitching into the sixth inning, and Juan Soto clubbed a two-run homer, securing the New York Mets their first winning road series in more than a month with Saturday’s 3-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals.
Making his fourth start of the season after missing roughly the first three months with a lat strain, Montas (2-1) was quite solid. He survived a 21-pitch first inning without yielded a run. For the game, he gave up four hits and struck out five; his only earned run came on Jonathan India’s RBI double in the sixth.
Soto, meanwhile, went deep for the second straight game for New York, which managed six hits but build on Friday’s 8-3 series-opening victory to win back-to-back road contests for the first time since sweeping a three-game set at Colorado on June 6-8. Edwin Diaz pinched the final two innings for his 19th save.
Kansas City won four straight entering this series, but is 1-for-17 with runners in scoring position the last two days. India’s two doubles accounted for half of the Royals’ hits Saturday.
After scheduled starter Michael Lorenzen was scratched due to illness, it turned into a bullpen day for Kansas City. Angel Zerpa pitched a scoreless first, then Jonathan Bowlan (1-2) pitched the next three, but yielded Soto’s drive, with Franciso Lindor on second base, that landed into the second tier of the right-field fountains in the fourth for a 2-0 Mets edge.
Montas, meanwhile, allowed two hits through five innings before back-to-back doubles from Kyle Isbel and India to open the sixth made it 2-1. That ended Montas’ day, but Reed Garrett came on and retired the heart of the Royals order — Bobby Witt Jr., Vinnie Pasquantino and Maikel Garcia — while stranding India at third.
Kansas City also stranded runners on first and third in the seventh. With one out in the eighth, Diaz walked Witt, who was then caught stealing after replay overturned the safe call on the field.
In the Mets’ ninth, Pete Alonso doubled and scored on Jeff McNeil’s two-out single into center field.
