Harrison Bader delivers go-ahead double as Mets rally past Pirates to get back to .500
The Mets’ season is barely two weeks old and they’ve already seemingly gone from a team going out of its way to find ways to lose to one that has shown a knack for winning tight games.
It happened again Monday, as a day after Harrison Bader delivered a go-ahead hit with a dribbler in the bottom of the eighth against the Royals, he came through again in the eighth versus Pittsburgh, this time with a double to put the Mets ahead.
The 6-3 comeback victory at Citi Field got the Mets to .500 on the season after they erased a three-run deficit in the sixth.
The winning rally started with Jeff McNeil reaching on a wild pitch on an Aroldis Chapman strikeout.
DJ Stewart, who had previously knocked in the tying run in the sixth with a pinch-hit double, walked, and both runners stole off Chapman to set up Bader’s clutch hit that helped the Mets win for the fourth time in five games.
The Mets have won three straight series to put their winless start further back in the rearview mirror, now back to 8-8, while the surprising Pirates fell to 11-7.
“To start 0-5 and now we’re .500, we’re never gonna give up,” Stewart said. “Everyone can doubt us all they want, but we know what we have in here and we’re happy with what we have.”
Stewart was also careful not to put too much stock in their record.
“It’s great to be [back at .500] now, but we don’t want to be .500,” Stewart said. “We want to be way above that.”
And they’re playing well against solid competition and they are playing well late in games, with an MLB-high 30 runs in the eighth inning or later.
“I think the first few games of the year, we learned a lot about ourselves,” Bader said. “We learned more in [the series win] in Atlanta. We can chip away.”
That’s just what they did against the Pirates.
Adrian Houser and Pittsburgh lefty Martin Perez were locked in a pitchers’ duel, scoreless through five.
Pittsburgh broke through against Houser in the sixth as the right-hander was finally burned by having walked five batters.
An Andrew McCutchen RBI single scored the first run before Drew Smith allowed two inherited runners to score to put the Mets in a three-run hole.
But the Mets answered right back.
Starling Marte and Francisco Lindor started the bottom of the inning with hard-hit singles to bring up the red-hot Pete Alonso, but the first baseman popped out.
Brett Baty singled to load the bases for Francisco Alvarez, who walked to drive in the Mets’ first run.
McNeil followed with a fly ball to right, too shallow to score Lindor from third, but Connor Joe made an ill-conceived and wild throw to first and Lindor came home on the error to get the Mets to within a run.
Stewart, pinch-hitting for Tyrone Taylor, then belted a game-tying double to right off right-hander Hunter Stratton.
“That was the game for me, right there,’’ Carlos Mendoza said of his decision to go to the lefty-swinging Stewart.
After the Mets got scoreless innings out of the bullpen by Brooks Raley and Adam Ottavino, they rallied again in the eighth.
Bader followed his two-run double by swiping third and scoring on a fielder’s choice by Brandon Nimmo to give the Mets a 6-3 lead.
“It was good to see,’’ Mendoza said of the rallies. “It’s important to have the ability to come back in games.”
The last time they were at .500 or better was June 4, when they were 30-30. Things went south after that last season.
Mendoza, understandably, isn’t looking too far ahead.
“We got off to a rough start, but we’ve got a long way to go,’’ Mendoza said. “I like where we are as a team.”
