San Francisco Giant shortstop Brandon Crawford singles in the top of the first inning against the New York Mets at Citi Field in Flushing on Wed Apr 20, 2022 (AP News photo)

By Jessica Kwong

NEW YORK — The San Francisco Giants (8-4) bounced back after falling in both games of a doubleheader, with a 5-2 win over the New York Mets (9-4) at Citi Field Wednesday night – on Brandon Belt’s birthday.

The Giants had three runs in the first inning and in the second, Belt hit a homer to put them up 4-0 over the Mets. It was Belt’s team-high fourth home run of the season. Belt, who turned 34 the same day, is tied for fourth in homers in the MLB.

“Better than my first year – I got sent down on my birthday,” said Belt.

Giants starter Carlos Rodón overwhelmed the Mets, striking out eight. Rodón’s slider was not working well, so he threw mostly fastballs: 77 of them, making up 81% of his pitches for the night.

“My breaking stuff wasn’t very good, so we just decided to go with the fastball attack and luckily it worked in my favor,” Rodón said.

Giants manager Gabe Kapler said it was a unique fastball, one the team had not seen many of over the past couple of years.

“The quality of that fastball is exactly what we should be talking about because these are really good hitters who are set up to handle that style of pitching and still are swinging and missing at balls in the zone, sometimes in the middle of the plate,” Kapler said.

New York, without their manager Buck Showalter who was out for a medical procedure, tried to rally in the seventh inning. But Starling Marte ran for second base with Francisco Lindor at the plate and runners on the corners. The Giants’ Joey Bart threw to second base, ending the inning.

In the eighth inning, the Mets hit three straight singles off Giants pitcher Tyler Rogers. However, Wilmer Flores caught Dominic Smith’s two-out liner to third base that would have made it a one-run game.

The Giants (8-4) avoided their first three-game losing streak of this season. Meanwhile, the Mets (9-4) had their three-game winning streak snapped.

First pitch for the finale of the four-game series is at 10:10 a.m. PT.