Mets have found fun at the bottom of season's black hole
Francisco Lindor reacts after his walk-off single as pitcher Jefry Yan runs to celebrate with him for their 5-4 win against the Washington Nationals on Saturday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Did you remember what it looked like? What it felt like?
It seems as if it’s been so long since there was actual joy at Citi Field — so much so that the last two days have felt like a throwback to the sepia-toned months of 2024.
On Saturday, it was the Mets’ walk-off 5-4 win over the Nationals — keyed by a two-run ninth that included gritty at-bats from Jorge Polanco and Francisco Alvarez, the latter of whom tied the score with a double before Francisco Lindor delivered a game-winning single that felt like an exhalation.
Jubilation followed. Lindor, who had committed a baserunning gaffe and has struggled so much this season, kept trudging to second base even as the dugout emptied around him — laughing, jumping, shouting.
The Mets (55-69) have won eight of their last 11 games, grabbing the white flag they raised at the trade deadline and turning it into garb for a toga party.
“It’s just resilient,” interim manager Andy Green said. “You don’t play perfect baseball when you go on winning streaks. You make mistakes, you make errors, you make baserunning mistakes, you don’t execute every pitch, but you don’t make that moment impact the next moment . . . I think if guys take the lesson out of this year, then yes, it can definitely impact next year.”
There are two main takeaways:
1. Perfection is the enemy of good. And for so long, the underperforming Mets, overwhelmed by outsized expectations, poor performance and big contracts, sought perfection. What they got was failure. This current gutted crop suffers no such delusions.
2. There is nothing New York loves more than a redemption arc. And even though this team probably isn’t going to get within a country mile of the playoffs, there’s still meaningful redemption to be had.
You started getting that sense in the ninth inning Friday when this season-long house of horrors appeared to experience something akin to whimsy. Kodai Senga was emerging from the bullpen in the ninth, and though there were no trumpets, no one seemed to miss them.
Because, you see, if you wanna stay alive (in this game), you better do what you can. Beat it, beat it.
“I didn’t see Michael Jackson, and if you were going to ask me what his song was going to be, I wouldn’t say ‘Beat It’ ” Green said of Senga’s closer entrance. “I liked it. I think everybody did.”
But it also served as a reminder: Senga has been persona non grata for the better part of the last two seasons, but fans so badly wanted him to give them something to root for. It leaked out into Saturday, when Sean Manaea pitched five masterful innings before struggling in the sixth. He ended up allowing four runs and six hits with two walks and seven strikeouts in 6 1⁄3 innings, but despite giving up a one-run lead in the sixth, he left to applause.
See, because though it was far from perfect, recent returns have been overwhelmingly positive.
Manaea allowed two hits in the first five innings before visibly fatiguing. He entered the day having pitched to a 2.16 ERA in his previous four starts and has thrown at least six innings in six of his last seven outings.
Compare that to the 6.85 ERA in his first eight outings of the season, and the chorus decrying the deal that will keep him in Flushing for at least one year longer.
Then there was Lindor, who’s been beset by mental lapses this year and committed an error Friday before also homering. On Saturday, with the Mets down 4-3 in the eighth, he singled and was caught stealing by a wide margin.
One inning later, he won the game.
Jefry Yan squirmed his way out of an embarrassing predicament in the ninth; with two outs, he thought he had Nasim Nunez struck out looking and began his ebullient celebration. Except it was called a ball, and Yan, who usually pats the ground at the end of his mound dance, instead patted his head for a challenge on the way down. It still was a ball, and the Mets lost their last challenge in a one-run game.
“I also thought we had one challenge remaining,” a sheepish Yan said via an interpreter. “Once I lost it there, I didn’t want to look bad, so I had to lock back in, focus and try to execute my pitch again . . . I actually wanted to really celebrate, so that’s what I ended up doing.”
Nunez took a 98.9-mph fastball for ball three and struck out swinging on an 88.9-mph slider on the black.
Polanco, who entered the day batting .137 and was swallowed by boos after striking out in the seventh, singled off closer Yovanny Cruz to ignite the rally in the ninth.
All of it ties together. Manaea — the south-pawed Golden Retriever who donned rally caps during the magical 2024 run — has fought so hard to exceed his body’s limitations and his own early failure. Lindor is having the worst season of his career. Yan was out of professional baseball for five years before finally getting his first shot in the majors.
Speaking of Manaea, Green noted that “resilience has a bit of vulnerability to it as well, [and] to acknowledge that this isn’t easy.”
So what does it mean?
The Mets now have no choice but to find strength in their vulnerability. The standings are the standings, and redemption isn’t going to look like a banner getting hoisted up at Citi Field.
If it’s going to happen, it’s going to have to look like small moments that have a chance to matter down the line.
“It’s been a tough year for everybody here,” Lindor said. “But now [the younger players] are seeing that the year is not done. We’ve got to play to win . . . When we were losing, they got a little bit upset because they wanted to win. It’s very important, and not just for them, but for everybody.”
Or, to take Senga’s entrance music wildly out of context: “No one wants to be defeated . . . You have to show them you’re not really scared.”
And beat ’em.
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.
