Mets snap 12-game losing streak as Mark Vientos' bloop single in 8th keys win over Twins

A 70.3-mph bloop hit off the hands. A ball Matt Wallner had to hold up on trying to catch in right. A mad, sprawling dash to the plate.

This is how a losing streak finally (mercifully) ends at 12: Mark Vientos hit a go-ahead single with two outs in the eighth to drive in Brett Baty and the Mets managed to actually win a game Wednesday, beating the Twins, 3-2, at Citi Field.

“You have double the belief in yourself when you have a lot of people saying you shouldn’t,” said Clay Holmes, who pitched a sterling seven innings, allowing two runs and five hits with a walk and three strikeouts. “We kind of have to lock arms and do it together. It’s cool, you know? I think that adversity could be good for us. I think just realizing that and having this early, hopefully it brings us together and we continue to fight.”

But because everything seems to come at a cost these days, the Mets lost Francisco Lindor in the fourth inning to what the Mets are calling left calf tightness — a bitter splash of irony on a day that Juan Soto returned from his right calf strain. He’ll get an MRI Thursday, Carlos Mendoza said.

At least for an inning, though, there was reason for them to smile.

With the score tied at 2 in the eighth, Taylor Rogers walked Baty with one out. That brought in Justin Topa, who proceeded to issue a free pass to Francisco Alvarez and tee up Vientos, who blooped a sinker to right to drive in Baty from second. Luke Weaver pitched 1 1⁄3 innings of scoreless relief to finish it off and snap the Mets’ longest losing streak since 2002, when they also lost 12.

“Finally,” said Weaver of the win. “This should just be a reminder that this game humbles you in so many ways, individually and as a team. It’s not very often when you have such a talented team where everything just doesn’t really click in the right way. It’s quite an impossible feat but we made it possible.”

The snakebit Mets took a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning. Lindor, who’s been heating up of late and was 2-for-2 with an RBI, reached on a one-out infield single. Alvarez followed with a double to right-center. Lindor grimaced as he rounded the bases to score and was removed from the game with left calf tightness.

To make things worse, the Twins tied it up again in the sixth on Byron Buxton’s leadoff homer — a 409-foot shot to center off a 1-and-2 sinker that stayed up in the zone.

The Mets ran themselves out of the sixth after Vientos reached on a two-out walk. Marcus Semien doubled but Vientos, whose sprint speed is in the 18th percentile, ran through a stop sign at third and was thrown out easily. Afterward, he said he saw third-base coach Tim Leiper throw up his hands but “I followed my instincts . . .

“I’m not going to play passive on the baseball field . . . I’d rather make a mistake aggressive than passive.”

Said Mendoza: “I’m glad he got that hit.”

Meanwhile, Soto hit second, served as the designated hitter and went 1-for-3, walked and was erased on a caught stealing. Though he insists that he’s 100% healthy, the Mets will be cautious.

“We need to be flexible and we have to stay on top of things with him,” said Mendoza, adding Soto would play in the outfield Thursday. “If we see that there are a couple of games — two, three games where there’s a lot of running on base . . . then we’ll have to adjust . . . We have to be smart with him.”

This will entail off days, too — something that Soto, who’s never played fewer than 150 games in a non-COVID season, has very little experience with (he played 116 games his rookie year but was called up in May).

“You can’t put all the pressure on him, especially when you’re going this stretch that we’re in right now,” Mendoza said. “It’s going to take all of us to get out of this.”

In the 18 days since his injury, the Mets went 3-12, saw their playoff probability drop from 77.4% to 39.5%, according to FanGraphs, and witnessed endless speculation surrounding Mendoza’s job security.

Soto said the losing streak was “uncomfortable to see from the outside,” but added that he was physically removed from it, since a bulk of it happened on the road while he rehabbed in New York. And though no team has ever lost 12 or more games and made the playoffs, he didn’t seem overly fazed.

It’s easier to make the postseason since the league went to a 12-team format in 2022, and the Guardians managed to get in last year despite a 10-game losing streak. Soto also won the 2019 World Series with the Nationals, a team that was 12 games under .500 on May 23 and 10 1⁄2 games out of first place on Sept. 14.

“I learned a lot of things in all aspects of the game,” he said of that season. “I was really young . . . There were things we can use here, things that I can bring to the table and see if the guys like it so we can do it, too.”

Great Scott

Christian Scott reported to Citi Field Wednesday ahead of his scheduled start on Thursday in the Mets' latest attempt to work around their crumbling starting pitching. Scott last pitched in the majors during a promising 2024 rookie campaign that was eventually felled by a torn UCL.

“I want it bad," Scott said. "I’m hungry for it. It’s tough to be away from the game for a year, getting a little taste of it and obviously getting surgery, but I feel like I belong here."

Tuesday, Mendoza announced that David Peterson (8,79 ERA in last three starts) would join Sean Manaea as two would-be starters now relegated to bullpen duty. Kodai Senga has struggled plenty, too, but is a poor fit for a bullpen role and is so far retaining his spot in the rotation. After a rough first outing with Triple-A Syracuse, Scott, who was highly impressive during spring training, dazzled in his next two, allowing two runs, four hits and two walks with 12 strikeouts in 10 1/3 innings.

“I feel like I have really good stuff and so being able to attack in the strike zone is obviously my goal going forward," he said. "I can get anybody out when I’m doing that.”

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.