Image credit: Chris Simon
The magic was back, even for just a day.
The New York Mets took two from Miami at Citi Field on Tuesday, plating five in the bottom of the ninth to win their suspended game from April 11 and rode Michael Conforto’s two-run rocket and a terrific outing from Trevor Williams to a dub in the regularly scheduled nightcap, breathing a little bit of new life into all interested parties.
Javier Báez, who spoke to the Mets’ press corps ahead of the not-doubleheader along with Francisco Lindor to address and apologize for the uproar their thumbs-down celebration may have caused, was instrumental in securing a win in the first game. Naturally.
Down 5-1 in the ninth with just two outs left in their pocket, Chance Sisco drew a one-out walk and Brandon Nimmo crushed a two-run homer off Anthony Bass to cut the Marlins’ lead to 5-3.
Lindor’s well-struck line drive found Jesus Sanchez’s glove for the second out and, once again, the Mets looked to be coming up just short after sleeping in for three-quarters of the game. Not so fast.
Dominic Smith, entrenched in a hellacious slump (3-for-his-last-36 entering the day) amid a wholly disappointing season for the 26-year-old, singled to keep the rally going. Pete Alonso doubled, moving Smith to third and bringing Báez to the plate as a pinch-hitter.
Needless to say, Báez heard it quite vociferously from the Citi Field faithful heading to the plate. The previous 48 hours had been the epitome of a shitstorm in Flushing, so that was to be expected.
We spoke about it the situation on Monday’s podcast (first segment; I know you’re all very busy people), in case you missed it.
SNY’s Gary Cohen shared some incredibly thoughtful words on the matter during the day game, delving past the surface of the situation as the future Hall of Fame broadcaster does so well and so often.
Our friend Roger Cormier at Meditations in Panic City (follow and sign up for the newsletter linked in the profile, we implore you) was kind enough to transcribe one of Cohen’s more pensive excerpts of the discussion.
We are absolutely spoiled with greatness in that booth. Back to the game…
Báez shot an infield single deep into the hole at shortstop to score Pete and make it a 5-4 game, bringing Conforto — 0-for-4 to that point with a rare display of frustration coming after his eighth-inning pop out — to the dish.
Know what? Let’s allow Gare to take us through this one, too.
Exciting stuff and desperately needed. One win at a time has to be the credo from here on out. That was a good one.
Conforto was pivotal again in the Mets’ 3-1 win in the night game, tattooing his 10th homer of the year at 111 MPH off the bat, sending it 435 feet into the Carbonated Corn Syrup Corner to break a scoreless tie in the fourth frame of a seven-inning game.
Jeff McNeil knocked in Báez with an RBI double later in the inning to make it 3-0, and the Metsies cruised from there with Aaron Loup, Seth Lugo, and Edwin Diaz shutting things down with 2.2 scoreless innings of work behind Williams (4.1 IP, four strikeouts, one unearned run on 57 pitches; 44 strikes!).
Between Conforto’s underperformance this season (.217/.340/.368, 103 wRC+) and the major hamstring injury he suffered at Tampa in May that kept him out of the lineup through late June, this has been a mostly nightmarish campaign for the 28-year-old. Though, in August, the Flushing stalwart turned a noticeable corner.
His .268/.388/.488 slash line with 143 wRC+ over 98 plate appearances last month was much more in line with the .261/.365/.478, 128 wRC+ he put up from 2018 through 2020. He’s still got quite a bit of work to do in order to keep this level of production up, but it’s still an extremely relieving sight.
How Conforto finishes this season — strong or meekly — will make a world of difference — not just for the impending free agent heading into the offseason, but for the Mets’ offense heading down the stretch.
“I think [Conforto] is really close to being that guy,” Mets manager Luis Rojas said after the nightcap. “So if he shows up in September like he did today for us, I think that’s going to boost our offense.”
“Some guys at the top now that are connecting really well to create situations have been doing really well,” he said. “Michael’s approach is a key for us. He’s gonna be hitting in the middle of the lineup, he can separate righties like he did with Alonso and Báez, and he can keep a good sequencing going on.”
Just one of many late-season storylines to keep an eye on.
This team has quite the challenge ahead of them if they want to truly make a run at the National League East-leading Atlanta Braves, who lost in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, leaving the Mets five-and-a-half back with 30 games to play.
Their deficit in the NL Wild Card race is identical, but with three teams — Philadelphia, St. Louis, and San Diego — between themselves and the Reds, currently holding the second spot.
With a functional offense looking to be well within reach at the moment, a little momentum behind them, and not a whole lot of time to make up a half-dozen games in the standings, any and all positive developments will be welcomed with open arms.
Plus, this isn’t exactly unchartered territory for this organization. The Mets were six-and-a-half games out in the NL East on August 30, 1973, finishing the year atop the division with a game-and-a-half cushion.
In 1999, the Mets were two-and-half games out of the NL Wild Card with five games left and pulled off the miracle to send things to game 163 in Cincinnati. Far from over, friends.
A final note, with Wednesday’s game already postponed and rescheduled as part of a doubleheader on September 28 the Mets now close out their home schedule with four games against Miami and play three in Atlanta to close out the season. Who’s writing this script, anyway?
Also coming with Wednesday’s postponement, legendary Mets radio broadcaster Howie Rose’s season ended with Tuesday’s festivities.
Rose, 67, will be undergoing surgery to address a health issue over the following weeks and will be taking a leave of absence. Howie, from The Apple and our supporters, we are all behind you and wish you an easy and speedy recovery.
Put this thing in the books, sir. LFGM.
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