PHOENIX — Here was the perfect getaway-game scenario for the Mets on Thursday: Build an early lead and slowly pull away without much resistance from the Diamondbacks.
Francisco Lindor carried much of the offensive load with a 5-for-5 performance that left him a double short of the cycle, and Carlos Carrasco’s sharpest outing of the season meant a largely stress-free night for the Mets, who rolled to a 9-0 victory at Chase Field.
They matched a season-high with their fifth straight victory in completing the three-game sweep.
This one included the benches emptying in the seventh (with the Mets ahead by nine runs) after Francisco Alvarez — who had colorfully celebrated the previous night after hitting a game-tying homer in the ninth — was drilled by reliever Jose Ruiz.
Alvarez motioned toward the right-hander and words were exchanged.
Both dugouts emptied, but order was quickly restored without punches thrown.
Earlier, Alvarez had homered for the third straight game in the series.
It was a brutal night all the way around for the D’backs, who watched National League Rookie of the Year favorite Corbin Carroll leave the game in the seventh inning after grabbing his left shoulder on a swing-and-miss.
The Mets (41-46) begin their final series of the first half on Friday in San Diego with visions of heading to the All-Star break on a serious roll.
Adding to the luster of the Mets’ desert sweep was the fact it came against a D-backs team that leads the NL West.
Arizona previously had not been swept this season.
Carrasco allowed only three hits and one walk over eight shutout innings in which he struck out four and threw 96 pitches.
It followed a gem by Kodai Senga a night earlier in which the right-hander allowed one run over eight innings and struck out 12.
Carrasco entered with a 5.94 ERA and hadn’t completed seven innings in any of his previous starts.
Lindor, who battled a stomach ailment a day earlier that nearly kept him from playing Wednesday’s game — he received intravenous fluids for dehydration — led the rampage with his five hits (two triples, two singles and a homer).
Lindor tripled with two outs in the first before Pete Alonso hit a line drive over the left-field fence to give the Mets a 2-0 lead.
The homer was Alonso’s 26th this season and fourth since returning from the injured list on June 18 after missing 10 days with a bone bruise in his left wrist.
In the third, Lindor tripled again and scored on Alonso’s RBI single. But the Mets were just getting started in the inning: Daniel Vogelbach and Jeff McNeil each delivered an RBI double before Alvarez’s two-run homer extended the Mets’ lead to 7-0.
Alvarez’s homer was his third in as many games and fourth since Saturday.
The most dramatic of those blasts came in Wednesday’s ninth inning, when Alvarez hit a game-tying homer against lefty Andrew Chapin before Mark Canha’s RBI triple put the Mets ahead in a 2-1 victory.
On this night Alvarez wasn’t finished. In the fifth, he delivered an RBI single that gave the Mets an 8-0 lead. Vogelbach singled and McNeil walked to start the rally before Alvarez’s dribbler through the middle Vogelbach.
Lindor’s 18th homer in the sixth gave the Mets a 9-0 lead.
The shortstop needed a double to complete the cycle when he came to the plate in the eighth, but he had to settle for his second single of the night.