Zach Neto’s go-ahead homer lifts Angels to victory over Mets

Neto's 14th homer of the year erased a two-run deficit. The game was started with six scoreless innings from José Soriano, and finished with Ben Joyce recording four outs for his first league save.

ANAHEIM — Zach Neto enjoyed the biggest hit of his young big league career so much that it hurt.

“It felt pretty good,” Neto said with a smile. “I was struggling to breathe there a little bit. I about pulled my oblique running the bases.”

Neto had hit a go-ahead three-run homer with two outs in the seventh inning, providing one of the two most electric moments from the Angels’ 5-4 victory over the New York Mets on Saturday.

The second moment was at the end, when right-hander Ben Joyce completed his first big league save by striking out All-Star J.D. Martinez on a 104.7-mph fastball, the hardest pitch thrown in the majors this season.

“It’s awesome, man,” Joyce said. “It started with Neto’s homer. You could feel the energy out there. I felt pretty calm, but it was a different level of adrenaline for sure.”

The final out punctuated what was perhaps one of the most encouraging nights this season for Angels fans. Although the team has been out of contention all year, the confluences of performances by youngsters Neto and Joyce — all after José Soriano began the game with six scoreless innings — has to give fans hope.

“They are the guys that are going to be maintstays in our drive forward,” manager Ron Washington said.

“It was a tremendous ballgame,” Washington added. “We showed some courage, played good baseball.”

The Angels (48-63) snapped a three-game losing streak with the performance, which was a rollercoaster during the late innings.

Soriano did not allow a run in his six innings, dropping his ERA to 3.47 in 20 games, including 18 starts. He got the benefit of some brilliant defense from center fielder Kevin Pillar, who opened the game with a sensational diving catch. After that, Soriano escaped some jams, stranding two runners in the first and sixth innings.

The bullpen — now depleted by the recent trades of Carlos Estévez and Luis Garcia — needed to maneuver nine outs to hold on to the 2-0 lead. They didn’t even hold it for two, with Hunter Strickland allowed a grand slam to Martinez in the top of the seventh.

The Angels bounced right back in the bottom of the inning though.

With two outs and the bases empty, No. 9 hitter Michael Stefanic punched a single up the middle. Schanuel then walked. Neto fouled off a couple 3-and-2 pitches from Huascar Brazoban before ripping a cutter over the left-field fence. It was his 14th homer of the season.

Neto was in position to be the hero because he had talked Washington into moving him from the bottom of the lineup to the No. 2 spot.

“I say ‘Hey, man, I think I’ve earned batting up there,’” Neto said. “‘Not that I don’t care batting in the bottom of the lineup. You write the lineup. But I think I’ve earned it to go up there and be productive and have a couple extra at bats.’ I was able to come through today.”

After Neto’s homer, the Angels still needed six outs. Matt Moore got two of them, but he departed with a runner at third, as Washington summoned Joyce.

Joyce got Tyrone Taylor on a grounder to end the eighth.

In the ninth, he had to deal with the top of the Mets order. He got Francisco Lindor on a fly ball to left. Neto then made a bare-hand grab and throw off a bouncer to retire Brandon Nimmo.

“The play he made there in the ninth inning was clutch also,” Washington said. “He was clutch all night.”

With two outs, the crowd was so loud that Joyce couldn’t hear the PitchCom in his cap. Catcher Logan O’Hoppe came to the mound to give him the plan for Martinez.

Apparently the plan was nothing but gas.

Joyce threw Martinez three fastballs. The first (103.7 mph) was a called strike. Martinez then fouled off a 103.2-mph pitch. Finally, Joyce cranked it up to 104.7, and Martinez swung through it.

“It was hard,” Martinez told reporters in the Mets clubhouse. “I’ve never seen a fastball like that. That’s the hardest fastball I’ve ever faced. I laughed after he struck me out I was kind of smiling. I had to look up at the radar. That was different. Kudos to him. He throws hard. He comes at you.”

Told that it was the hardest pitch in the majors this season, Martinez said: “I’m going to be all over Instagram, striking out.”