The Mets were three outs away from a sixth straight loss and an even more disastrous start to their current crucial stretch against contending teams. Instead, they hope they found their springboard back into winning baseball.
After tying it in the ninth to force extra innings, the Mets plated four runs in the 12th to salvage a game in the three-game set against the major league-leading Giants, and now head to Los Angeles for another series with the Dodgers who swept them at Citi Field this past weekend.
Now with a big win under their belts, the Mets hope this series goes a lot different than the first round.
“The boys are excited,” Kevin Pillar said. “I think we got a little bit of momentum, we got the monkey off our back a little bit. Things just haven’t been going well. Guys are in good spirits and working hard. Baseball is just a challenging game. We maybe [exceeded] some expectations early on in the year with the amount of injuries we had, and I think the expectations were high with everyone coming back. We’re still not at full strength. Guys are playing through stuff and guys are competing.”
The Mets recent slide has left them 4.5 games back of the surging Braves, as their chokehold on first place in the NL East has been completely lost, after holding that title for three straight months. But with six weeks still remaining in the season and potential reinforcements like Francisco Lindor, Javier Baez, Noah Syndergaard, and potentially Jacob deGrom working their way back, the season is far from over.
New York has kept an aura of positivity in the clubhouse during its recent skid, perhaps to annoyance for some who see it as ignoring glaring issues, but now the team has a tangible piece of evidence in the form of a big victory to jolt the Mets back into a higher level of production.
“We were in games we had opportunities to win and just couldn’t win games,” Pillar said. “To see the scoreboard at the end with the Mets up and a W in the win column means a lot to this team…I think everyone is gonna sleep a little better tonight.
“There is momentum in baseball and there is confidence in baseball…hopefully [Wednesday] brought that for us.”
Manager Luis Rojas downplayed the idea that Wednesday’s win was a response to team owner Steve Cohen’s tweet calling out the Mets offense, but did not downplay the idea that Wednesday’s win could lead to more, and could turn the season around rather than being a blip on the radar.
“Every win can get you going,” Rojas said. “You go back and win tomorrow…the confidence level is moving higher. We’re past this game. We’re celebrating, guys feel good about the game…but we’re moving on to [Thursday].”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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