Mets’ bats bring Giants laughter on Showalter’s birthday

SAN FRANCISCO — A bloop here, a bang there and Buck Showalter got to celebrate his birthday with a bash on Monday.

How about a piñata, a cake and a Smack Down of the Giants? It was all there for the Mets manager. Maybe all that was missing was a juggling clown on a fire truck.

The baseball portion of the program included a strong performance from David Peterson on his return to the rotation, hits of all sizes and a solid relief in a 13-3 win at Oracle Park that saw a pitching appearance by Giants outfielder Luis Gonzalez in the ninth inning required. The Mets (29-15) won for the fifth time in six games and rose to 14 over .500 for the first time on October 4, 2015.

A surprise pre-game meeting celebrated Showalter’s 66th birthday. The manager was blindfolded and led to the indoor batting cage, where a piñata was waiting for Showalter to hit him with a bat while the players cheered him on. Showalter also received a cake.

But Showalter’s best gift might have been a crazy five-run third inning in which the Mets built a 5-2 lead for Peterson. The rally took shape with two outs after Brandon Nimmo extended the inning with an infield single. Starling Marte’s Squib infield single loaded bases before Francisco Lindor hit a bloop to left field that Darin Ruf overran at the foul line. The ball bounced behind Ruf in fair territory as he continued to run towards the stands and caught in the net. The ball followed Ruf into the net for a two-run ground-rule double.

But Alex Cobb’s nightmare wasn’t over yet: Pete Alonso smashed the next pitch for a three-run homer. The blast was Alonso’s 11th of the season and propelled him to the NL lead. It also gave him 40 RBIs, which the NL leads.

The collapsing JD Davis started the rally. Davis returned in the sixth to beat an RBI double that extended the Mets’ lead to 6-2.

The Mets turned it into a breakaway in the eighth on Jeff McNeil’s double homer and Mark Canha’s subsequent blast. It was the second time this season the Mets had hit consecutive home runs. Eduardo Escobar almost had a hat-trick but his shot down center left against Mauricio Llovera was intercepted on the warning track. Davis then doubled for his third shot of the game. Patrick Mazeika joined the bash with an RBI double that extended the Mets lead to 10-2.

In the ninth inning, the Mets hit flapping outfielder Gonzalez for three extra runs. Included was Davis’ fourth goal of the game.

Peterson passed a two-run homer to Brandon Crawford in the second run that made up the first goal of the game. Evan Longoria doubled and with an out, Crawford smashed a 95-mile fastball over the midfield fence.

The left-hander, who was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse before the game, allowed two earned runs with three hits over six innings with six strikeouts and a walk. It was Peterson’s fourth strong performance of five for the Mets this season, certainly reason enough to keep him on the rotation with Max Scherzer and Tylor Megill, both of whom are on the injured list, and the team is still waiting for Jacob deGrom starts booting. Peterson owns a 2.16 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP and offers a left-handed option. Another left-hander, Thomas Szapucki, is the frontrunner in Wednesday’s series finale.

Colin Holderman has continued his solid work since joining the Mets’ bullpen by posting two scoreless innings. Chasen Shreve worked the ninth and allowed one run.