Several Kinds of Wonderful

Yeah! Luis Torrens! The backup catcher thrust into near-everyday action is the hero in the bottom of the eighth, rescuing the Mets with a double all the way down the left field line, scoring Brandon Nimmo from second, salvaging an inning that nearly went by the wayside on the basepaths, breaking a tie, and positioning us three outs from victory. Who could ask for anything more?

Me, that’s who, albeit involuntarily. “Gee,” I heard myself think, “I was kind of looking forward to the top of the order coming to bat again.” It’s not that I didn’t want the Mets to take the lead and conclude a win. I just wanted more Mets, especially the Mets due up every time the lineup turns over. It was more an in-a-vacuum wish than a desire to see our one-run lead vanish.

Be careful what you wish for. Or wish at will. I wished for more Mets as well as a Mets win and I got both. That’s unusual. But so is this team.

All of Friday night served to remind us the 2025 Mets are built to play entire games with the idea of winning them. They’re not incapable of falling behind, but they seem immune to accepting a loss as their imminent fate. They do lose games. They could have lost this one. They had every opportunity.

David Peterson was adequate for five-and-a-third. Despite striking out nine times against our lefty, the Cardinals solved him thrice, for a run apiece in every even inning he pitched. “Well, he just doesn’t altogether have it tonight,” I figured. Yet pitching into the sixth without total command is significant. Every third-of-an-inning a reliever doesn’t pitch on the front end is a third-of-an-inning he can stick around for later. Also significant was the return of Max Kranick, whose one-day paper stay in the minor leagues went on a day too long. Max cleared up the last two outs of the sixth and brushed aside the seventh, by which time the Mets were in a deadlocked ballgame.

Off the board through four, every Met you felt needed to “get going” got going in the fifth. Brett Baty, maybe not a lost cause, doubled to lead off. Tyrone Taylor, the center fielder about whom it seems universally agreed requires platoon partnership, tripled Baty in. Juan Soto, before the boobirds could be heard in full throat, was greeted by a purposeful ovation and responded by singling in Taylor for what became a 2-2 tie. When it was a 3-2 deficit in the bottom of the sixth, there was Mark Vientos homering for a second consecutive night to retie matters. Weren’t we recently worried about Mark’s slow start?

After Kranick and then Ryne Stanek (gotta love pitchers whose names end the way they like to finish off batters — with a K) steered us to the bottom of the eighth, several Mets generated more positive developments. Vientos singled off Old Friend™ Phil Maton. Luisangel Acuña came in to pinch-run and took his assignment to heart, stealing second. Those fast feet couldn’t get enough of forward momentum, for on Nimmo’s succeeding grounder to third, Luisangel attempted to cross over. Nolan Arenado dove at Acuña just as Acuña dove at third base. Probably not advisable aggressiveness on the fleet Met’s part, but you try to discourage a Met in motion. He might have been safe, but he was called out on the attempt to remedy his overslide, and it was too close to get overturned on review. Thus, instead of the speediest Met standing on second with one out, we had a Met not as fast on first. Woe was us.

The woe went on its way in a veritable blink, because Brandon rated a pickoff throw from Maton that got away, allowing Nimmo to take second, which allowed Torrens to drive him in to make the game Mets 4 Cardinals 3. Edwin Diaz was deemed unavailable to pitch the ninth, but we’d hand the ball to Huascar Brazoban and everything would be fine.

Except the league’s leading hitter, Brendan Donovan, instantly tickled the right field foul pole, and the game was tied anew. Dang, these Cardinals do not go away. But dangs work in opposing directions, for these Mets don’t give up. How many Met relievers have we seen give up a leadoff game-tying homer in the ninth and then recover to strike out the next three batters swinging? We’ve certainly seen at least one. Hail Huascar, king of composure!

And, oh look, my fleeting wish was coming true. The top of the order was due up in the bottom of the ninth, starting with Francisco Lindor. If Lindor didn’t do something great, there would be Soto, who had that RBI single earlier, and if Soto didn’t come through, there’d be Pete Alonso, who’d tripled way back in the first. If the ninth didn’t give us what we needed, there was always extras.

But none of that long-term planning was necessary, as it took exactly three pitches for Lindor to take Ryan Fernandez (a Cardinal presumably named for two distinguished Met hurlers of yore) clear up onto Carbonation Ridge. Yup, a walkoff home run, just like that, making the Mets 5-4 winners in one of the most wonderful games you’d ever luck into. Really, it was a game of wonders. You wondered not how the Mets were going to lose it each instance they stumbled, but how they were going to win it whenever a chance presented itself. Guessing “Lindor will hit one out” might have seemed too obvious, but it turned out to be the correct choice. The night before, Lindor coached a teammate home from third while he himself orchestrated a rundown between first and second, so your instinct is to pick Francisco to do something wondrous whenever needed. Yet most everybody else doing something well merits partial credit as an answer for how the Mets won. Torrens, Taylor, Soto, Spy…I mean Kranick, Stanek, Brazoban, Baty, Nimmo, Peterson, Acuña (sort of). There were a lot of Mets in advance of Lindor who helped make a potential loss an actual win on Friday night.

You’ll get a lot of wins when you have a lot of help.