Mets score double-digit runs in 3 straight games for first time in 63-season history

NEW YORK (AP) — Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and the 2024 New York Mets accomplished what the Darryl Strawberry teams of the 1980s and all their other predecessors failed to: score double-digit runs in three straight games.

Alonso, Nimmo, Mark Vientos and Francisco Alvarez homered in a 10-6 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday night that followed 10-1 and 10-0 routs of the Washington Nationals.

It was the 9,963rd regular-season game in the 63-season history of the Mets, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“Sick,” Alonso said.

A franchise whose success was dependent on the pitching prowess of Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden and Jacob deGrom finds itself fourth in the major leagues with 740 runs — one more than the Phillies.

“It’s pretty amazing that the Mets have played over 10,000 games and we’re the first ones to do this,” Nimmo said, rounding up. “That’s pretty special.”

New York won its fourth straight game and for the 16th time in its last 20, maintaining a two-game lead over Atlanta for the NL’s final wild-card position and improving to 61-33 following a 24-35 start.

And they're doing this without star shortstop Francisco Lindor, who hasn't played since Sunday because of a sore back.

“We know we’re good,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We're capable of having games like that.”

Vientos and Alonso built a 2-0 lead with first-inning homers against Taijuan Walker, who gave up a career-high four long balls.

After Trea Turner's two-run homer off Luis Severino tied the score in the third, Nimmo hit a two-run homer in the bottom half and Alvarez had a three-run drive in a five-run fourth off that clanked of the plexiglass of the second-deck restaurant in left. Nimmo added an RBI double and scored on Vientos’ single.

Rookie Luisangel Acuña, a brother of Atlanta star Ronald Acuña Jr., drove in the 10th run with an RBI triple in the seventh off José Alvarado.

“We’ve had that trust and belief in each other all year and I think now it’s just coming into fruition, coming to light a little bit more," Alonso said.

Mets home attendance was hurt by the summer 2023 selloff of Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander and this season's slow start, down by about 300,000 from last year.

“When Citi’s a vibe and a fun place to play, we totally feed off that,” Alonso said.

After Wednesday's win, Nimmo implored people to fill Citi Field.

“Mets fans, we need you guys to fill this place up!” he said shouted in an on-field interview heard throughout the ballpark. “This place needs to be rockin' on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday! We need your help! We need everybody to get out here! We need this place full! This is playoff baseball. This is what you guys want. Let's go! Let's go Mets!"

A crowd of 35,982 showed up, the most at Citi Field since a Subway Series game against the Yankees in late June.

“It was great energy and a playoff-type atmosphere. Very thankful for that,” Nimmo said. “We need more of it as we go down this stretch and into this weekend. We fed off of it.”

Just three home games remain before a trip to Atlanta and Milwaukee that closes the regular season.

“The more positive energy and the more people that are creating that hostile environment for the road team. I think that just helps us play play better,” Alonso said. “It’s infectious.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

New York Mets' Edwin Díaz pitches during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Mets' Francisco Alvarez celebrates with teammates after hitting a three-run home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Mets' Francisco Alvarez celebrates with teammates after hitting a three-run home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Mets' Luisangel Acuña grounds into a force out during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in New York. Acuña was safe at first base on the play. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Mets' Luisangel Acuña, center, celebrates with teammates after a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Mets' Brandon Nimmo (9) gestures to teammates after hitting an RBI double during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese prosecutors said Tuesday they will not appeal the acquittal of the world’s longest-serving death-row inmate in a retrial last month, bringing closure to the 1966 murder case after more than a half-century of legal battles.

Prosecutor-general Naomi Unemoto said the prosecution decided not to appeal the Shizuoka District Court decision that found Iwao Hakamada not guilty in a retrial 58 years after his arrest, saying: “We feel sorry for putting him in a legally unstable situation for an extremely long time.”

Hakamada, an 88-year-old former boxer, was found not guilty on Oct. 26 by the Shizuoka court, which concluded that police and prosecutors collaborated in fabricating and planting evidence against him. The court said he was forced into confession by violent, hourslong interrogations.

The top prosecutors’ decision to not appeal two days before the Oct. 10 deadline finalizes Hakamada’s acquittal by the district court.

”I’m delighted that we finally resolved this. Case closed,” his 91-year-old sister Hideko Hakamada told reporters after getting a phone call from her lawyer about the prosecutors’ decision.

“I kind of knew this was going to happen,” Hakamada said, with a laugh.

Unemoto, in a statement on the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office website, also apologized for Hakamada's decades-long unstable legal situation amid a lengthy court process and pledged to investigate why the retrial took so long. She expressed dissatisfaction over the court decision that investigators had fabricated evidence.

Hakamada was convicted of murder in the 1966 killing of an executive and three of his family members and setting fire to their home in central Japan. He was sentenced to death in 1968 but was not executed, due to the lengthy appeal and retrial process in Japan’s notoriously slow-paced justice system.

His acquittal became official on Wednesday when the Shizuoka prosecutors office submitted the paper waving the right to appeal.

The Shizuoka prefectural police chief, Takayoshi Tsuda, told reporters he hoped to directly apologize to Hakamada. He expressed regret for the victims' families that the case ended without finding the culprit.

Hakamada became the fifth death row inmate to be found not guilty in a retrial in postwar Japan, where prosecutors have a more than 99% conviction rate and retrials are extremely rare.

He spent more than 45 years on death row, making him the world’s longest-serving death-row inmate, according to Amnesty International.

With Tuesday’s settlement of the retrial ruling, Hakamada is now entitled to receive government compensation of up to about 200 million yen ($1.4 million).

His lawyer Hideyo Ogawa has said his defense team is considering filing a damage suit against the government and the Shizuoka prefecture over the collaboration of prosecutors and police in fabricating evidence, despite knowing it could send Hakamada to the gallows.

FILE - Iwao Hakamada, 88-year-old former boxer who has been on death row for nearly six decades after his murder conviction that his lawyers said was based on forced confession and fabricated evidence, goes for a walk in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture, central Japan, on Sept. 26, 2024. (Kyodo News via AP, File)