Francisco Lindor, Luis Torrens and rookie Carson Benge homered off Gerrit Cole, and the visiting New York Mets rolled to a 12-2 victory over the New York Yankees on Saturday afternoon.
Lindor added a grand slam in the eighth as the Mets (69-79) won for the fifth time in six games and improved to 22-13 since their big selloff at last month’s trade deadline by hitting Cole (8-9) hard again.
Rookie Zac Thornton (4-5) allowed two runs on five hits in a career-high-tying seven innings. The left-hander struck out four, walked one and threw first-pitch strikes to 17 of 26 hitters.
Lindor got things started in the first inning by lifting a 1-1 changeup into the right-field seats. It was the shortstop’s 36th career leadoff homer and fifth this season.
Torrens homered for the seventh time in his past 27 appearances when he lifted a 1-2 fastball into the left-field seats for a 3-0 lead in the second inning. Benge added a solo shot in the third to push the Mets’ advantage to 4-0.
Benge added an RBI single that chased Cole from the contest with one out in the fifth. Juan Soto homered in the seventh, and Lindor hit his eighth career grand slam after Torrens hit an RBI double.
Lindor has seven home runs in his past 12 games and 24 career multi-homer games.
Jared Young also went deep with two outs in the ninth to give the Mets six homers against the Yankees for the first time.
Cole was tagged for five runs on nine hits (three home runs) in 4 1/3 innings after allowing four homers in Sunday’s loss at San Diego. He struck out four and didn’t walk a batter in his second-shortest outing since returning from Tommy John surgery on May 22.
The right-hander has allowed 17 homers in 10 career starts against the Mets. He is 0-3 with a 10.93 ERA in his past three outings against them.
The Yankees (85-63) snapped a four-game winning streak. They entered the game needing both a win and a Toronto Blue Jays loss to secure a postseason berth for the ninth time in 10 seasons.
Cody Bellinger hit a run-scoring single for the Yankees in the fourth. He added a solo homer in the sixth to pull the hosts to within 5-2 before the Mets put the game out of reach with a five-run eighth.
