CHICAGO -- After a rough start to the season, the Mets have played much better baseball over the past few months. That has put them in the thick of the NL Wild Card race entering September.

Behind Pete Alonso’s two-run homer and Jesse Winker’s solo shot in the first inning, New York defeated the White Sox by a score of 5-3 on Saturday evening at Guaranteed Rate Field. That victory pushed the Mets (72-64) to a season-high eight games over .500 and just two games back of the final NL Wild Card spot after the Braves’ (74-62) 3-0 loss to the Phillies.

Alonso’s long ball got the scoring started early, as he belted a hanging slider to deep left-center field for his 30th home run of the season. He now joins Mike Piazza as the only two Mets players to have four straight 30-plus-homer seasons. Piazza did it with New York from 1999 to 2002.

Winker then added to the scoring by going back-to-back with Alonso four pitches later. The Mets tacked on two more runs in the third and sixth innings -- thanks to RBI singles from Winker and Starling Marte -- which was enough to push them past the White Sox for their third straight victory. Jose Quintana gave up two runs (one earned) with six strikeouts across five innings to earn the 99th win of his career.