James McCann's homer, Francisco Lindor's RBI single push Mets past Atlanta

ATLANTA — We’d reached the point in the Mets’ offensive woes where a three-run deficit didn’t just seem like a hurdle, but a series of large, imposing mountains. So, when Ozzie Albies’ homer hit the seats in the fifth inning at Truist Park Tuesday evening, the Mets were actually being presented with a personal Everest — succeed where they’ve recently failed (more than once).

Good thing James McCann came ready to climb. Francisco Lindor, too.

McCann’s seventh inning homer, along with Lindor’s go-ahead RBI single, helped the Mets break out of their offensive stupor, as they came back to beat Atlanta, 4-3, and improved to seven games over .500.

After six innings of brilliance, Atlanta starter Charlie Morton started to unravel in that seventh, letting up a leadoff single to Dom Smith and then walking Kevin Pillar. Morton then sailed a cutter that didn’t quite cut to McCann, who homered to center to tie the score at 3. The homer snapped Morton’s 23 2/3 scoreless inning streak and seemed to break the spell he had on the Mets, Before McCann’s hit, the Mets had only scored one run on Morton this season, a span of 19 innings.

That ended Morton’s night, but reliever A.J. Minter didn’t fare too much better that inning. After striking out Luis Guillorme for the first out of the seventh, he allowed a two-base hit to Jose Peraza and, one batter later, Lindor's single brought him in.

Ehire Adrianza nearly tied the score on a leadoff ninth-inning fly ball against Edwin Diaz, but the ball went just foul. Starter Tylor Megill had another strong game, with his only mistake coming in the fifth, on that Albies three-run homer, a 400 footer. Megill, in his second-ever start, gave up those three runs on five hits over five innings, with two walks and eight strikeouts.

"I think it’s just a total buy-in from everybody," McCann said. "If you look at it, it’s not just one guy that comes up with the big hits over and over. It’s a whole team effort. You can really go up and down a lineup and look at, ‘This guy got a big hit here, this guy got a big hit there.’ We truly believe in each other. We truly believe that any given day, any guy can get the job done . . . When you have that kind of culture, that kind of atmosphere, good things happen."

Meanwhile, Lindor, a career .280 hitter who came into the day hitting .215, has been having better at-bats recently, manager Luis Rojas said. Though he struck out twice against Morton, he was able to adjust in that seventh inning, and Rojas believes this portends good things to come.

"This hit definitely lifted his confidence even more," Rojas said, "so I think this is something that can carry over for him."

The result was a breakout from the Mets offensive dry spell. They came into the day last in runs, hits, and RBIs, as well as 27th in homers and 20th in slugging percentage. Their .229 team batting average is fifth-worst in baseball. They’ve averaged 2.5 runs over their previous eight games. They have, though, proved remarkably adept at scoring late. All but one of their runs in the last six games have come after the sixth inning.

"They feel that they’re going to come back, that they’re never just giving in," Rojas said. "That’s what we saw today. One inning and we turned it around. We faced once again another tough starter, having great stuff going on for [six] innings and we run into him in the seventh and we’re able to make an adjustment. These guys are like that. The resiliency here, I think, is contagious. Everyone in the clubhouse feels the same way."

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.