Francisco Alvarez leads the Mets to a comeback victory in his 1st game back from the minors

NEW YORK (AP) — Just back from the minors, Francisco Alvarez played a major role in the New York Mets' comeback win.

After tearing up Triple-A pitching for a few weeks, the 23-year-old catcher returned to New York's starting lineup Monday night and provided a huge lift in a 7-5 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

Playing his first big league game in a month, Alvarez went 1 for 2 with two walks and scored twice. He doubled off the right-field fence with one out in the eighth inning, sending Brett Baty to third base before he scored the tiebreaking run moments later.

Alvarez also cut down Zach Neto trying to steal second in the seventh and tagged out Mike Trout at the plate to complete a nice play by Baty at third.

“You’ve got to give him a lot of credit,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said about Alvarez. “Overall, it was a complete game for him.”

Alvarez was demoted to the minors on June 22 in a somewhat surprising move — one day after he went 2 for 5 with a 452-foot home run late in an 11-4 victory at Philadelphia.

At the time, he was scuffling on defense and batting only .236 with three homers, three doubles, 11 RBIs and a .652 OPS in 35 games this season. Mendoza called the move “kind of like a wakeup call” for Alvarez, who had been a big league regular since 2023 after reaching the majors late in the previous season.

“First and foremost, we wanted to see how Alvy was going to respond to the challenge that we gave him when we sent him down,” Mets President of Baseball Operations David Stearns said. “This happened faster than I would have envisioned when we optioned him.”

It took Alvarez less than a month to get back to New York, after he hit .299 with 11 homers, 24 RBIs and a 1.233 OPS in 19 games at Triple-A Syracuse.

Stearns noted Alvarez’s steady hard work during his minor league stint, and said the catcher’s rapid improvement on defense was even more important to the Mets than all that offensive production.

“I think personally I had to focus on myself and work on myself,” Alvarez told reporters through an interpreter before Monday's game. “I think being down in Triple-A, I think what helped me was I learned how to be patient. I just continued to work hard, continued to do what I needed to do and just to put in the time to eventually get back to the big leagues.”

Batting eighth in the opener of a three-game series, Alvarez received a standing ovation from the Citi Field crowd of 41,442 before his first at-bat Monday night.

“It felt really good, just because of everything, all the struggles that I had earlier in the season and the way that they have supported me and the way that they received me today," Alvarez said. “Through all the hard work that I’ve been putting in, it felt really special to be able to get that reception from the fans.”

He grounded out to end the second inning, stranding two runners in scoring position, but his night was about to get much better.

“It's just the confidence. You could see it in the box,” Mendoza said. “The takes, knowing that he’s in control of the at-bat. So it was really good to see.”

Alvarez picked up right where he left off at Syracuse. Over his last six minor league games since July 11, he batted .476 (10 for 21) with seven homers, 15 RBIs, 10 runs, five walks and a 2.164 OPS.

Pretty astounding — in any league.

“It seems like for the last week he hit a homer every day,” Mendoza said. “He handled it like a pro, and here he is and we are all proud of him.”

Luis Torrens got most of the playing time at catcher while Alvarez was in the minors. New York optioned backup Hayden Senger to Syracuse following Sunday’s win over Cincinnati.

Alvarez was activated April 25 after beginning the season on the injured list with a hamate fracture in his left hand, and he missed two games last month while on the paternity list.

Once rated baseball’s top minor league prospect, Alvarez had 25 homers and 63 RBIs with a .721 OPS as a rookie in 2023.

“We need him. We know how important he is for this team,” Mendoza said.

In other roster moves, right-hander Rico Garcia was claimed off waivers from the New York Yankees, and reliever Dedniel Núñez (right elbow) was transferred to the 60-day injured list. Left-hander Richard Lovelady was sent outright to Triple-A.

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