Flushing, NY: They don’t believe they can lose and the Mets are on that rush right now as they continue to do things that could not be done in the first half of the season.
Friday night at Citi Field, the Mets won their seventh straight game in comeback style, a 7-6 ninth inning walk-off win over the Washington Nationals. The hero was Michael Conforto with the single off losing pitcher Sean Doolittle.
Now 14 wins in 15 games and the Mets finished the evening tied for a second NL wild card. It’s a mood in the Mets clubhouse that surpasses the team of 2015 that made an unexpected run to the World Series.
They win the remaining two games of this series, then the Mets will leap in front or tie the Nationals for the first wild card spot.
It was their first test against the elite teams that are now on the schedule that are above .500 and in contention. And this was a good first test against a division rival with two more against the Nationals this weekend before traveling to Atlanta and facing the division leading Braves.
“It’s outstanding,” said manager Mickey Callaway. “They believe in something and going after it.”
And they went after this one like a championship fighter.Trailing 6-3 in the bottom of the ninth they put on a rally before the 39,602 fans at Citi Field. The huge blow off Nationals’ Sean Doolittle was the game-tying three run homer from Todd Frazier that tied the game at 6.
“It was something special,” Frazier said about the ball that was hit to the left field line off a 2-1 fastball. “Got a pitch to hit, you heard the roar of the crowd,” he said.
it was a roar at Citi Field that has not been heard since the NL wild card game against the Giants in 2016. It was a win that had Mets fans and the team knowing something special is happening.
In many ways, this winning streak that started after the All-Star break, resembles that Miracle Mets team of 1969 that won it all. And though the game is different, the winning always feels good and more so after seeing this team at a low point of 11-games under .500 and out of contention three weeks ago.
“Got the pitch, did what I had to do,” Frazier said.
He was asked, as were the others in the clubhouse about the never quit attitude. The Mets are realizing that something special is happening and at Citi Field. They won their ninth straight game at Citi Field and are 33-20 at home.
“Don’t feel like we are out of a game when you are on a run like this,” Frazier said.
NOTES: Amed Rosario continues to grow as a bonafide major league player. The shortstop collected multiple hits for the fifth time in his last 10 games and is batting .386 in that span as well as handling the plays that come to him.
“We feed off each other,” Rosario said through an interpreter. We don’t want to lose.”
The Mets sent eight batters to the plate in the ninth inning and scored four runs on six hits. The Conforto walk-off single to right field that scored Juan Lagares was his first career walk-off hit and RBI.
Marcus Stroman, 6.0 innings, 9 hits, 4 earned runs, 9 strikeouts in his Citi Field debut with the Mets recorded a season high in strikeouts and at one time struck out five consecutive Nationals…
Again the Mets bullpen payed a role. Luis Avilan (3-0) got the win, 0.2 innings and two strikeouts…
Juan Soto tied his career high with his 22nd home run that gave the Nationals two of their three runs in the fourth inning.
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