SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Yoenis Cespedes doesn’t feel his timing is all back after a stint on the disabled list.
But it’s hard to imagine it’s off that much, either.
Cespedes hit two long home runs and added an RBI double in his second game back from the disabled list, boosting Bartolo Colon and the New York Mets over the San Francisco Giants 9-5 Saturday.
The Mets had lost five of six before topping the team that began the day leading the NL West. The Giants dropped to 11-22 since the All-Star break.
Cespedes, who’d been out since Aug. 4 with a strained right quadriceps, drove in three runs. He has 24 homers this season.
“It was his show today,” Mets second baseman Neil Walker said. “He had a great day.”
The slugger’s shot off Matt Moore (7-10) in the third inning went 457 feet, according to Statcast.com.
Cespedes added a 418-footer off reliever Jake Peavy in the seventh.
“Today was a good day, I think for any ballplayer you could say today was an excellent day,” Cespedes said through a translator.” I can’t say that the timing is 100 percent back, though. We’ll see what goes on next.”
The Mets are hoping that what’s next for Cespedes is another second-half power surge, like the one he had last season that took them to the World Series.
“He’s the guy in the lineup who does a lot of the damage, so when he’s there it makes it a little easier on the guys behind him and it takes the pressure off,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “They kind of feed off what he does.”
Alejandro De Aza hit a three-run homer during a four-run sixth that stretched the Mets’ lead to 7-2.
Colon (11-7) allowed two runs, scattering nine hits and a walk in 6 1/3 innings. He has three quality starts in four outings this month and a 2.25 ERA in August.
“I think everything worked out well,” Colon said through a translator. “I was throwing a lot of sinkers, the ball out here moves a lot for me.”
Colon’s pitches hit the strike zone with pinpoint accuracy. On a day when the Mets needed the 43-year-old right-hander to go deep into the game with a bullpen taxed, he threw 103 pitches – 73 for strikes.
“He’s not worried about lighting up the radar, he’s worried about missing barrels,” Walker said. “It makes it difficult as a hitter when you have to cover a lot of the plate and that’s what he does.”
Moore, acquired at the trading deadline from Tampa Bay to bolster the back end of the Giants rotation, is 0-3 with a 4.70 ERA in four starts with his new team.
Moore gave up three earned runs and five hits in five innings. It was the first time in 13 outings he pitched less than six innings going back to June 2.
“I’m not getting ahead of the hitters and then I’m losing them,” he said. “I didn’t do a very good job of managing the game with the 90 pitches they gave (me).”
Denard Span hit a “splash” home run off Colon into the San Francisco Bay in the third. The home run was Span’s seventh and his second “splash” hit this season.
Angel Pagan extended his hitting streak to 18 games with a bunt single in the first. The Giants outfielder exited after three innings with tightness in his right groin.
BABY WATCH
Mets second baseman Neil Walker will fly to his home in Pittsburgh after Sunday night’s game to be with his wife Niki for the expected birth of their baby girl. Walker said doctors will induce the birth on Monday night, a Mets off day. Walker said his wife is doing well. “It’s just been a big waiting game,” Walker said. “I knew as soon as she got pregnant that we’d probably be out here on the West Coast, whether it was here or Arizona or St. Louis, we knew that was going to be challenging.”
LINED UP
The Giants have set their rotation ahead of their pivotal three-game series at Dodger Stadium next week, with the trio of Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto and Moore set to start the Aug. 23-25 series, manager Bruce Bochy said.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Mets: RHP Jim Henderson was activated from the disabled list on Saturday. The hard-throwing setup man had been on the disabled list since June 21 with shoulder tendinitis. In a corresponding move RHP Tyler Goeddel was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas.
Giants: Pairing up C Buster Posey with Moore for the first time factored in Bochy’s decision to start the All-Star catcher in a day game after a night game. Bochy sat Posey for two straight games earlier in the week because of lower back tightness. … LHP Josh Osich, who’s been on the disabled list with a left forearm strain since July 28, could be activated soon. Bochy said the 27-year-old is developing a changeup in a rehab assignment with Triple-A Sacramento.
UP NEXT
Mets: RHP Noah Syndergaard allowed two earned runs in 5 2/3 innings in his most recent outing against Arizona in which he snapped a streak of six straight winless starts. He is 1-2 with a 4.86 ERA in August and 0-2 with a 6.17 ERA in two career starts against the Giants.
Giants: RHP Jeff Samardzija is 1-0 with 2.31 ERA in his last two starts but the Giants have won just two of his last nine starts. He is 0-3 with an 11.40 ERA in three starts against New York and has an 8.72 ERA in nine career appearances against the Mets.