Keys, Straw Bury Mets Early as Toronto Cruises 9-3

Toronto turned a 5-0 lead into a 9-0 advantage before New York threw a single run on the board, making this one effectively over before the Mets could blink. Sean Keys and Myles Straw each went deep, combining for 6 RBI in a thorough dismantling of a Mets team that looks like it has bigger problems than one bad Wednesday.

Toronto wasted no time. Kazuma Okamoto's infield single to shortstop plated a run in the first, and the Blue Jays were off. By the third inning, Ernie Clement doubled to right to score Okamoto and send Kirk to third — and then Keys stepped in and ended any remaining suspense. His three-run homer to left at 349 feet scored Kirk and Clement, pushing Toronto to 5-0 and swinging the home win probability from 81% to 94% in a single swing. That was the ballgame, functionally speaking.

Freddy Peralta absorbed the damage for New York, allowing 7 hits and 5 earned runs across 4.0 innings with 3 walks and 4 strikeouts — not the outing the Mets needed. Toronto kept adding: a Varsho single to center scored Guerrero Jr. in the seventh to make it 6-0, and then Straw launched a two-run shot to left center at 397 feet, scoring Varsho and Kirk to push the final margin to 9-0 before New York had answered once. On the pitching side, Toronto used two arms — Spencer Miles went 3.0 innings with just 1 hit, 0 earned runs, and 5 strikeouts, before Patrick Corbin handled the next 5.0 innings, allowing 3 earned runs on 4 hits with 5 punchouts of his own. That's a combined 10 strikeouts and a workmanlike performance that gave the Toronto bullpen the night off.

New York's late fireworks were cosmetic at best. Carson Benge hit a 406-foot shot to left center in the eighth, scoring Baty to make it 9-2, and Francisco Lindor went deep to left at 408 feet in the ninth for the final 9-3 margin. Benge finished 2-for-4 with 2 RBI and Lindor went 1-for-3 with 1 RBI — both men doing their part in garbage time. The story of the night, though, was a Mets offense that went completely silent when it mattered and a rotation that handed Toronto a lead it never had to sweat. Lindor said recently that the Mets' struggles fall on the players themselves — on this afternoon, it's hard to argue otherwise.