On a day that the Mets learned they would be without their best player due to a back issue, they went back into sole possession of the third National League Wild Card spot.
Starling Marte’s walk off, RBI single in the bottom of the tenth gave the Mets a 2-1 win over the Washington Nationals last night before 21,694 at Citifield.
“Marte got drilled the other day and he was pretty sore and watching him go through the pre-game routine and [he] was like, I’m gonna be a player for you,” Manager Carlos Mendoza said. “I said be ready because you might come up in a huge situation which he did. He didn’t come through [in his first at bat] and finally that second at bat [he came through].”
Earlier in the day, Francisco Lindor had an MRI that came back clean and revealed no structural damage in his back. The Mets best player is expected to miss 2-5 days but the players who were in the lineup found a way to get a big win.
“With not having Lindor in the lineup, guys are gonna have to continue to step up and this is a perfect example,” Mendoza said.
The Braves lost to the Dodgers for a second straight game, so the Mets retook the third NL Wild Card spot by a game as the teams continue to flip flop their positions. It appears that the race will be decided next week when the teams go head to head in a huge three game series in Atlanta.
Facing teams that are out of the race are essentially opportunities for a team in the race, but these games can also burn you when you don’t take advantage of the opportunity. “On a night where it was hard for us offensively, we found a way,” Mendoza said.
The Mets have been struggling offensively but their pitching, particularly the starting rotation has been carrying them the past few weeks. In their past 26 games, the Mets are 18-8 with a 3.00 ERA.
Sean Manaea, who is pitching like an ace, kept the ball rolling with seven strong innings. It was the seventh straight start that Manaea has gone 6 2/3 innings or more as he allowed one run on four hits with a walk and six strikeouts. “I’ve always dreamt of being in a position like this, to help this team win is huge,” Manaea said.
Manaea was not as sharp as he has been in previous starts but the only blemish on his line came in the fourth inning when the Nationals snapped a scoreless tie.
Juan Yepez led off with a double to left center field and moved to third on a ground out. With the infield in, promising second base prospect Jose Tena lined a single to left to score Yepez to give the Nats a 1-0 lead.
The Mets couldn’t break through against Nationals starter Jake Irvin, who blanked them over 8 innings on July 4th, but they tied the game in the eighth thanks to their shortstop not named Lindor.
Jose Iglesias, who has played over 1000 games at shortstop, started in place of Lindor at short and hit lead off and continued to be the Mets “Mr. Clutch.”
Tyrone Taylor led off the inning by lining a double off of Irvin into the left field corner. Francisco Alvarez hit a dribbler towards third and was originally called safe at first, but the Nats challenged the call and it was overturned for the first out as Taylor moved to third.
Derek Law relieved Irvin and the Mets sent Marte up as a pinch hitter for Eddy Alvarez, but he grounded to short on the first pitch as Taylor held third. That brought up Iglesias who has been money as he came up big again with two out and runners in scoring position.
Iglesias lined a shot that caromed off of Law and ended up as a run scoring infield hit to tie the game at one. Iglesias is 11 for 23 (.478) this season with two out and runners in scoring position.
After a scoreless ninth, the Nationals had the go ahead run on third with one out in the top of the tenth, but winning pitcher Reid Garrett got Keibert Ruiz (with the infield in) and Jacob Young on consecutive ground outs to shortstop Luisangel Acuna (Iglesias moved over to second base), who handled both chances flawlessly to keep the game tied.
The Nationals brought in former Met Jacob Barnes to pitch the tenth. Harrison Bader pinch ran for Mark Vientos to start the inning at second.
Washington intentionally walked Taylor but Francisco Alvarez moved Bader to third by flying out to deep right field.
Marte ran the count to 3-1 and then jumped on a 96 MPH, four seam fastball from Barnes and lined it into left field to score Bader with the winning run and give the Mets their 11th walk off win of the season.
“I was able to get a good swing there and I was able to have success there and help the team win,” Marte said (through an interpreter).
Before the Mets scored in the 8th, they had scored only one run in 22 innings as the bats continue to be silent. J.D. Martinez was 0 for 4 and is 0 for his last 20, Vientos took the collar and is 3 for his last 34 while Pete Alonso was 1 for 4 but he’s hitting .213 with 2 home runs and five RBIs in September.
The Mets are going to need some of their hitters to pick up the slack in Lindor’s absence, but they’ve been resilient all season long and that resilience could be the x-factor that puts them in the playoffs.
“It’s a huge loss because he’s [Lindor] the leader of this team but it’s important for all of us to go out there and try to carry the load, Marte said, “Pretty much for him until he’s back.”