The San Francisco Giants Patrick Bailey connects for an eighth inning home run to take the lead over the New York Mets at Citi Park in New York on Fri Jun 30, 2023 (AP News photo)

By Jessica Kwong

NEW YORK. — In his first game in the Big Apple, Patrick Bailey hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning to boost the San Francisco Giants to a 5-4 victory over the New York Mets at Citi Field on Friday night.

“Today was flat-out excellent,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said of the first in the three-game series. “So definitely fair to get excited about tonight.”

In the first inning, Jeff McNeil doubled on a line drive to left fielder Blake Sabol and Francisco Lindor scored, putting the Mets up 1-0.

Brandon Crawford singled on a line drive to center field and Sabol scored, tying the game at 1-1 in the second. In the bottom of the inning, Omar Narvaez hit a sacrifice fly to center field and Tommy Pham scored, allowing the Mets to regain a 2-1 lead.

But the Giants tied it again in the fifth inning when Wilmer Flores hit a home run to center field. San Francisco challenged a stadium boundary call but the call on the field was upheld. McNeil doubled to left field on fan interference and Brandon Nimmo scored, putting the Mets up 3-2.

It was a Giants fan responsible for the interference, and Blake Sabol went over to console him and gave him a fist pump.

“I felt bad for the kid there you know, he had a whole stadium booing him,” said Sabol. “I think he was just a kid excited at a baseball game.”

Giants starting pitcher Alex Cobb said Sabol is “a puppy, he’s got a big heart”.

In the sixth inning, Pham hit a homer to left field and expanded the Mets’ lead to 4-2.

Then Bailey hit his big homer to give San Francisco the lead. That wasn’t all he contributed, though. In the ninth in the catcher position, Bailey threw to shortstop Casey Schmitt as Starling Marte was caught stealing.

“Probably one of his quicker moves and fortunate the fast ball off, I was able to get a good throw,” Bailey said of the play.

The Giants (46-36) got their eighth win of the season when trailing at the end of the seventh inning. Meanwhile, the Mets (36-46) suffered their 13th blown lead loss this month which is the most in the majors in June.

Game two takes place on Saturday with first pitch at 1:10 p.m. PT. Giants right-handed pitcher Anthony DeSclafani (4-7, 4.28 ERA) is set to face right-handed pitcher Justin Verlander (2-4, 4.11 ERA).