Pete Alonso Leads Mets Over Marlins

Pete Alonso is a one-man rally these days. It’s going so well for the Mets first baseman that when he doesn’t produce — it’s downright surprising.

Leave it to Alonso and his weapon of choice, the home run. Alonso’s second homer of the game, an eighth-inning blast, gave the Mets their final lead in a 5-3 victory over the Marlins at loanDepot park.

With plenty of South Florida Mets fans in attendance to salute him with “M-V-Pete” chants, Alonso delivered a haymaker, giving his team a second straight victory and fifth in six games against Miami.

Alonso leads the National League with 22 homers and 68 RBIs in a season that won’t reach the midway point until next weekend. His two blasts on this day gave him four, including a grand slam last weekend, over eight games.

The Mets received a solid performance from pitcher Chris Bassitt, who held the Marlins to three earned runs on six hits and no walks with five strikeouts over seven innings. It was a third straight respectable outing for Bassitt.

Avalanche End Lightning’s Reign, Win Stanley Cup For First Time Since 2001

The Colorado Avalanche are Stanley Cup champions for the first since 2001, thanks to a resiliency that had eluded them in recent years.

The Avalanche rallied for a victory for the 10th time in the playoffs to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in Game 6 Sunday night and end the two-time champions’ reign.

Colorado star Nathan MacKinnon had his best game of the series with a goal and an assist in the second period to help the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup with a 16-4 playoff record.

The win marks Colorado’s third NHL Stanley Cup trophy in franchise history. The team’s previous successes in the final came in the 1995-96 and 2000-01 campaigns. 

On the other side, the Lightning tasted defeat in the final after winning  two consecutive trophies the last two seasons. Tampa Bay won its first of three championships in the 2003-04 season.

Yankees’ Gerrit Cole Flirts With No-Hitter

Gerrit Cole made a run at history on Monday — and then the Yankees got a huge hit from Aaron Hicks and a gutsy performance from Wandy Peralta to hold on and beat the Rays, 4-2. 

After Cole took a no-hitter into the eighth inning, the Yankees gave back a two-run lead, but Hicks — in the midst of a rough season — delivered an RBI triple in the top of the ninth for the go-ahead run. 

Jose Trevino followed with a sacrifice fly to score Hicks to give the Yankees a two-run lead. 

The Yankees held on in the bottom of the inning, as Wandy Peralta rebounded from his poor outing in Toronto on Sunday and got out of a  two-on, one-out jam to pick up the save. 

“When we can answer like that, it’s special kind of stuff,’’ Cole said of the team’s ability to win another close game. 

With the win, the Yankees improved to 50-17, matching 1998 for the third-best 67-game start in franchise history. They’ve won 10 of 11.