Mets continue red-hot June with dismantling of Astros to move over .500

Even the second-hottest team in baseball could not cool off the Mets. Not when Tyrone Taylor, Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil all smacked home runs. Not when the beleaguered bullpen picked up pitcher Jose Quintana on an off night. Not when Grimace hung out in owner Steve Cohen’s suite during the game. The Mets improved upon their MLB-best June record and moved above .500 for the first time since May 2 by snapping the Astros’ seven-game winning streak Friday with a 7-2 comeback win at Citi Field. Taylor tied the score with a solo shot 2-2 in the fourth before the Mets broke the game open in the sixth.Alonso hit the go-ahead home run and McNeil provided three insurance runs on his first homer since May 22 — making the Astros pay for a two-out inning-extending error by Alex Bregman. The Mets (40-39) improved to 16-6 in June — including 12-2 since Grimace threw out a first pitch and subsequently was adopted as a ballpark favorite by the fan base — while the Astros (40-41) dropped to an American League-best 15-8 this month. Once again, the Mets looked worthy of being MLB trade-deadline buyers to make a playoff push, as general manager David Stearns admitted earlier in the day could be a possibility if the team keeps meeting his expectations. Greeted by a smattering of boos — softer than he hears as public enemy No.

1 at Yankee Stadium — to start the game, Jose Altuve responded by hitting a first-pitch home run.Altuve, who faced louder boos and taunts aimed at his past sign-stealing scandal as the night progressed, had been 5-for-27 in his career against Quintana. It foretold a difficult night for Quintana, who needed 93 pitches to record just 12 outs.

He minimized the damage to two runs, however, and Adam Ottavino kept an inherited runner from scoring in the fifth. The biggest out for the bullpen — operating without closer Edwin Diaz (suspension) and set-up man Drew Smith (likely headed for season-ending Tommy John surgery — was recorded by Dedn...