Mets use Eduardo Escobar blast, Kodai Senga gem to beat Marlins

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Eduardo Escobar rounded second base with a scream and flexed his arms during his home run trot.

Maybe Escobar was trying to scare off the early season demons that have haunted his 13-year MLB career (especially the last two Aprils with the Mets), have turned him into a target of fan ire and could threaten his playing time if he ever loses the seemingly unwavering support of the dugout.

Escobar rewarded the faithful Saturday when he smacked an opposite-field two-run home run to help back Kodai Senga’s brilliant start and lift the Mets to a 5-2 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 42,306 at Citi Field.

“I’d be careful about doubting [Escobar],” manager Buck Showalter said.

Escobar is hitting .107 through the first nine games and the home run tripled his season RBI total, while highly regarded prospect Brett Baty’s hot bat lingers in Triple-A. Escobar had nothing to show for two hard-hit balls in his first two at-bats, including a line out to the left-field warning track.

“In my career I’ve been a slow starter, but it’s one of those things where you have to continue to come in each day with a positive attitude and a strong mentality to try to get better,” Escobar said through an interpreter. “When you get that result where you hit the home run, you get excited because you want to appreciate that moment.”

The Mets (5-4) led 1-0 until Pete Alonso’s two-run home run — his fourth in the last three games and fifth of the season — in the fifth inning. The Marlins answered with a Jazz Chisholm Jr. home run to lead off the sixth before Senga escaped a two-on, two-out jam by inducing a groundout with his 90th and final pitch.

When Escobar delivered, there was a team-wide sigh of relief. Not just because the lead was more secure, but for Escobar, who hit .321 in September and October last season after a miserable five-month introduction to New York.

“There were a lot of guys [going], ‘Phew,’ ” Showalter said. “We all know what he means to the morale of the club, and you like to see those guys do well. There wasn’t a better player in our league in September last year. Hopefully this will get him going. Some of his struggles early on, it bothers him — just like everybody.

“He knows how this works up here. You always hate when there is some negative focus on somebody when you know they are better than that and you see all the quality things they mean to the club.”

Senga (2-0) dominated the Marlins for the second time in as many career MLB starts, scattering three hits, three walks and six strikeouts over six innings. He relied more on his fastball (40 pitches) than his signature “ghost forkball” (16, none of which were put in play).

“Being a pitcher that’s known for a single pitch, the forkball, I think it’s very important — not just when you face the same team multiple times — to mix in the pitches evenly,” Senga said through an interpreter. “As the season goes on, I think hitters are going to get more used to it, and they’re going to try to not swing at it.”

The Mets needed three pitchers to get through the seventh inning relatively unscathed. John Curtiss cleaned up a bases-loaded jam by retiring former World Series MVP Jorge Soler as the potential go-ahead run.

Alonso’s home run immediately followed a controversy when Showalter questioned whether the Marlins should be charged for two mound visits instead of one based on the technicality of when the catcher and pitching coach started their approaches to Miami starter Trevor Rogers. The meeting of three minds didn’t stop Alonso from doing damage.

“It’s honestly just not giving in and staying confident in what I’m seeing,” Alonso said. “Letting pitchers come to my zone and not necessarily try to force anything.”

But Alonso described Escobar’s big swing as “sick” and “what put us over the top.”

“The one thing [hitting coach Eric Chavez] told me was to trust in my hands,” Escobar said. “I think that’s been my biggest problem. We were in the cage hitting off the machine a lot. I felt like I was able to bring all those reps into the field today.”

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