TORONTO — There are no style points in September, and no extra credit handed out for crisp, aesthetic play. The standings are the standings and the scoreboard is the scoreboard, so when a team perfunctorily playing out the string hands you the tying and go-ahead runs in the eighth inning, you say thank you and you run with them.
The Mets escaped Rogers Centre on Monday with a 3-2 win over the last-place Blue Jays, grateful indeed for Toronto’s helping hand late. Combined with Atlanta’s 1-0 loss to the Reds, New York moved back into sole possession of the third and final wild card in the National League with 18 games to play. The Mets gained a half-game on idle San Diego and Arizona.
“It was a good team win,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “When it was hard for us, we found a way to win.”
Trailing by a run after seven, the Mets seized the lead with a passive approach at the plate and an active one on the basepaths. A walk, a swinging-bunt single compounded by an error, another walk, a wild pitch and a passed ball plated two runs. It was a Looney Tunes way to take a lead — or a looney toonie, as they might say here in the north.
“The way we controlled the strike zone that inning was the key,” said Mendoza, lauding the approaches by pinch-hitter Jesse Winker and Francisco Lindor for the two free passes.
Credit the Mets for their base running as well. Pinch runners Tyrone Taylor and Eddy Alvarez — the latter acquired late Sunday and added to the roster Monday in part for this specific role — didn’t hesitate when the ball dribbled away from catcher Brian Serven twice in the frame. Taylor scored the tying run on the wild pitch and Alvarez scored the go-ahead run on the passed ball.
3-2 Mets! pic.twitter.com/Gqo30tDnol
— New York Mets (@Mets) September 10, 2024
New York needed that kind of help on a night when it managed all of three hits, including that squibber from Francisco Alvarez. The Mets had made the first one count, as well, when J.D. Martinez delivered a two-out RBI single in the fourth to open the scoring.
The Mets will need to get more from their lineup soon. Over the last week, Brandon Nimmo is 4-for-25, Pete Alonso 4-for-23, Winker 1-for-18 (albeit with that leadoff walk Monday night) and Starling Marte 2-for-17. The team, as a whole, is hitting .207 in the last seven games.
And yet, New York is 6-1 in that time, thanks to a pitching staff that continues to get the job done. Monday was Tylor Megill’s long-awaited time to shine. The right-hander was filling in on a third straight turn for Paul Blackburn, though this time with less notice. Megill didn’t find out he was going to start until Sunday when Blackburn’s balky back acted up; he hadn’t thrown his typical bullpen session between starts since he was preparing to be available as a reliever instead.
Maybe that’s a model for Megill to follow moving forward because this was the sharpest he’d looked all season. Relying predominantly on his four-seam fastball and two-seam sinker, he overpowered the Jays for long stretches of the game. The three base runners he allowed came consecutively with two outs in the first inning; he retired 16 straight after that.
He excelled by pumping his four-seam fastball into the strike zone. He threw 26 of them on the night; the Jays had seven swings-and-misses and took eight more for called strikes. It helped that Megill was throwing that pitch a tick harder than he has for much of the season, topping out with plenty of 97s on the night.
“I just wanted to go out and compete and give the team the best chance to win,” Megill said. “I threw the ball great tonight. It felt good. Everything was working.”
“The fastball was really good,” Mendoza said. “He stayed on the attack.”
That’s what the Mets have to continue doing. They get two more games against the disappointing Blue Jays before 10 of the next 13 are against Philadelphia and Atlanta. There will be no such gifts in those games.
(Photo of Tylor Megill: John E. Sokolowski / Imagn Images)
