“I’m not gonna lie, we needed that one,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said.
That they certainly did.
Things were looking bleak once again for Mendoza's Mets on Sunday afternoon. After Nolan McLean delivered six shutout innings, for a second-straight day, hopes of bringing the brutal losing streak to an end appeared on the cards. But, for a second straight day, New York’s bullpen let a slim advantage over the Texas Rangers slip.
Brooks Raley entered and gave up a single and hit a batter while getting two outs in the seventh, before turning things over to Reed Garrett, who walked another to load the bases, before allowing a game-tying single to Joc Pederson.
Tyler Rogers then put together a scoreless eighth, and Edwin Diaz worked out of a jam in the ninth, thanks to a tremendous play from Francisco Lindor,snagging a liner before throwing to third for a double play, nabbing the would-be go-ahead runner.
Ryne Stanek followed that up with a strong inning of his own, striking out a pair to strand the ghost-runner in scoring position, then Pete Alonso delivered a walk-off three-run home run in the bottom of the tenth.
It was Alonso’s first long ball in 11 games, and the fifth game-winning shot of his career.
“Every walk-off homer is sick,” the slugger said. “There’s no way to rank that one, but awesome and a phenomenal feeling — obviously, there was a lot of meaning to that one for where we are right now, so just super happy I was able to help the team.”
The losing skid now officially comes to an end at eight games.
That guarantees that New York will carry their slim advantage in the race for the third NL Wild Card spot heading into the second-to-last week of the regular season.
They’ll look to build off of this when they open a series Tuesday against the Padres.
“It was important, I’m not gonna lie, we needed that one,” Mendoza said.
“We need them all at this point,” Alonso added. “No matter if it’s today, tomorrow, or however many games we have left in the regular season, we need as many as we can — just gotta do the best we can to stack them, I’m really glad that we got this one.”
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