{"id":389709,"date":"2026-09-03T22:40:51","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T22:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/389709\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T22:40:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T22:40:51","slug":"nick-morabito-sparks-mets-with-3-run-double-for-first-hit-makes-dazzling-catch-in-10-4-win-vs-rays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/389709\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Morabito sparks Mets with 3-run double for first hit, makes dazzling catch in 10-4 win vs. Rays"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"New<\/a>New York Mets’ Nick Morabito connects for a three-run double off Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Manuel Rodr\u00edguez during the seventh inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo\/Chris O’Meara)<\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Rookie Nick Morabito had a three-run double for his first major league hit and later made a sparkling defensive play in left field, helping the New York Mets beat the Tampa Bay Rays 10-4 on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Morabito, who entered as a pinch runner for Mark Vientos in the sixth inning, came up with two outs and the bases loaded in the seventh and\u00a0slashed a 2-2 pitch<\/a>\u00a0from Manuel Rodr\u00edguez down the left-field line to turn the Mets\u2019 two-run lead into a 9-4 advantage.<\/p>\n

In the eighth, Victor Mesa Jr. sent a sinking liner to left that Morabito chased down and made a\u00a0diving catch<\/a>\u00a0to end the inning.<\/p>\n

Morabito, who started his big league career hitless in his first 12 at-bats, added a single in the ninth.<\/p>\n

Juan Soto slugged his 23rd homer \u2014 a solo shot in the eighth \u2014 as part of the Mets\u2019 14-hit performance.<\/p>\n

Jared Young hit an RBI single and Marcus Semien doubled in a run as the Mets scored three times in the first off Griffin Jax (6-10), making his first start in a month.<\/p>\n

Brett Baty chased Jax with a three-run double with two outs that put the Mets up 6-0 in the third. Jax allowed seven hits and walked two.<\/p>\n

Justin Hagenman went three innings in his first start for the Mets this season and second of his career. The right-hander retired the first eight Rays before issuing a two-out walk to Taylor Walls. Yandy D\u00edaz and Jonathan Aranda had back-to-back singles to cut it to 6-1.<\/p>\n

Cedric Mullins singled in a run and Richie Palacios hit his sixth homer, a two-run shot off Chris Devenski that got the Rays within 6-4 in the fourth.<\/p>\n

Dedniel N\u00fa\u00f1ez (1-0) got four outs and rookie Nate Lavender retired the next five and still has not allowed a run through 12 appearances. Daniel Duarte got four outs and Jonathan Pintaro pitched a perfect ninth to end it.<\/p>\n

Junior Caminero went 0 for 4 and struck out twice for the Rays, ending a 15-game hitting streak<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Mets: RHP Nolan McLean (10-8, 3.06) starts Friday in a brief three-game homestand against the Giants.<\/p>\n

Rays: LHP Shane McClanahan (10-6, 3.19) starts Thursday in Texas opposite Rangers RHP Cal Quantrill (6-5, 3-01).<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full MLB coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Mets’ Nick Morabito connects for a three-run double off Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Manuel Rodr\u00edguez during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[12193,202,204,203,199,201,200,3815],"class_list":["post-389709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-new-york-mets","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa-bay-rays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}