OMG and some of the vibes of 2024 are gone, but if the Mets are going to replicate their success from a year ago, this team will need a lot of the same traits they had a year ago.
And in Saturday’s 3-2 comeback win over the Blue Jays, it sure felt like last season’s never-say-die attitude was still around.
It started in the eighth with a two-out, two-run triple from Jesse Winker that tied the game and it carried over into the ninth, with a one-out walk from Jose Siri, a hit by Luis Torrens and a game-winning sacrifice fly by Francisco Lindor, as the Mets won their third straight and fourth in five games after dropping two of three in Houston.
“We have a lot of guys back,’’ Carlos Mendoza said of the similarities between last year and this one. “It’s still early, but there are good signs. We’re always close.”
For most of the night, much of the Mets lineup looked like it wanted to be anywhere but a cold and damp Citi Field against the Blue Jays, facing ex-Met Chris Bassitt.
They wasted leadoff doubles in each of the first two innings and at one point Bassitt had retired 17 of 18 batters.
And then the Mets left the bases loaded in the seventh before they finally broke through in the eighth — courtesy of Winker’s two-run triple.
After Edwin Díaz stranded two runners in the top of the ninth by striking out Anthony Santander and Andrés Giménez, the Mets won it in the bottom of the inning.
Siri set up the winning rally with a one-out walk and moved to second on a wild pitch.
He got to third on Torrens’ single to left and scored when Lindor smoked a line-drive sacrifice fly to center on the first pitch he saw from Jeff Hoffman.
“We had one of the fastest guys on third base,’’ Lindor said of Siri. “He made it pretty easy for me. I’ve just got to barrel the baseball. I wasn’t even picking a spot to hit it. He’s pretty electric when he gets on base.”
It was an encouraging night for Lindor, who has gotten off to a slow start but reached base twice and delivered the decisive run.
And it happened in large part in the eighth, as Lindor opened with a walk and Juan Soto sent him to second with a single.
Left-hander Brendon Little struck out Pete Alonso and got Brandon Nimmo to fly out to deep center to send Lindor to third with two outs.
Mendoza kept the lefty-swinging Winker — the only batter to figure out Bassitt earlier in the game — in against Little and he responded with the two-run triple to right to tie the game.
“That was not an easy decision,’’ Mendoza said.
It paid off.
The comeback was made possible because of a solid effort from the pitching staff, as Griffin Canning gave up just one run in four-plus innings and the bullpen was again strong.
Canning retired the first two batters of the game before a walk to Santander and a base hit to right by Giménez. With runners on the corners, the right-hander struck out Alejandro Kirk to escape the jam.
José Buttó left the bases loaded after the Blue Jays took the lead in the fifth, but consecutive two-out doubles in the sixth gave Toronto a 2-0 lead, with Alan Roden and Bo Bichette combining to knock Buttó out of the game.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider pulled Bassitt in the seventh and Yimi García gave up a hit to the slumping Brett Baty to bring up Siri, who walked on four pitches.
Pinch hitter Starling Marte grounded out, but the Mets offense showed signs of life the rest of the night.
“Today was not comfortable,’’ Lindor said. “It was cold.”
But many of the 37,694 were still there at the end, and like the Mets, they left happy that the team has a chance to finish a series sweep Sunday.
