A letdown was looming.
Contemporary off of back-to-back wins over the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, the Mets struggled for seven innings Monday to get something going towards the cellar-dwelling Chicago White Sox.
Ex-Mets starter Adrian Houser held them scoreless for six-plus innings.
They left the bases loaded within the seventh.
They have been 0-for-5 with runners in scoring place going into the eighth.
However as they’ve so typically this season, the Mets discovered a approach to win.
Juan Soto’s sacrifice fly tied the sport within the eighth and Francisco Lindor’s walk-off sacrifice fly received it within the ninth, giving the Mets a 2-1 victory at Citi Area on Memorial Day.
“That’s what makes those guys who they are,” supervisor Carlos Mendoza stated. “In those moments, they have a really good awareness of the situation.”
It was the Mets’ thirteenth come-from-behind win of the season and their fifth walk-off.
The Mets (33-21) trailed 1-0 when No. 9 hitter Francisco Alvarez led off the eighth with a single towards left-handed reliever Cam Booser. That hit got here on a 97-mph fastball — a notable feat contemplating Alvarez started the day with a .190 common and a 54.5% strikeout price towards four-seamers.
Pinch-runner Luisangel Acuña went first to 3rd on Brandon Nimmo’s one-out single, placing runners on the corners for Soto.
The lefty-swinging Soto then despatched Booser’s 1-1 sweeper deep sufficient to left area to attain Acuña and tie the sport.
“Left-on-left, he knows that [he’s] got to get the ball in the air,” Mendoza stated. “Not trying to do too much.”
The sac fly marked Soto’s first game-tying or go-ahead RBI within the eighth inning or later this season.
“On a day we’re not executing, he executes and picks everyone up,” Lindor stated of Soto.
Tyrone Taylor then led off the ninth with a double towards Steven Wilson. After taking a pair of sweepers to start the at-bat, Taylor lined a dangling one into the left-field hole.
An intentional stroll to Jeff McNeil and a single by Luis Torrens loaded the bases for Lindor, who jumped on a first-pitch sweeper from Wilson and despatched it simply in entrance of the right-field warning observe for the game-winner.
It was Lindor’s third walk-off RBI of the season.
“The moment’s never too big for him, and he’s aggressive with good pitches to hit,” Mendoza stated. “He’s got conviction when he’s making those decisions and that’s what great players do over and over and over again. He keeps doing it.”
The late-inning drama adopted a gem by Houser, who pitched for the Mets final season after being acquired, together with Taylor, in a December 2023 commerce with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Houser made solely six begins earlier than he was demoted to the Mets’ bullpen and totaled 23 appearances earlier than he was launched final July. He completed his Mets profession with a 1-5 report and a 5.84 ERA.
Monday marked Houser’s second begin with the White Sox, whom he signed with final week.
Houser held the Mets to 3 hits and a stroll over six-plus scoreless innings, at one level retiring 16 consecutive batters.
The Mets, in the meantime, obtained 5.2 innings from starter Clay Holmes, who held light-hitting Chicago to at least one run — on Andrew Benintendi’s fourth-inning sacrifice fly — over a career-high 102 pitches.
The White Sox set a doubtful single-season report with 121 losses final season. At 17-37, they’re once more the worst crew within the American League, however the Colorado Rockies (9-45) are on tempo to shatter Chicago’s historic 2024 loss whole.
Monday’s sequence opener adopted a nine-game stretch wherein the Mets went 4-5 towards the Yankees, Boston Pink Sox and Dodgers.
“We just played three big series,” Holmes stated. “A lot of night games. A lot of energy with those, and to be able to show up today with the effort that everybody did on defense, the results weren’t there early, but the effort and the way people were playing, it was impressive.”
The three-game set continues Tuesday night time, with Tylor Megill (3-4, 3.56 ERA) scheduled to pitch for the Mets and Shane Smith (1-3, 2.36 ERA) set to begin for Chicago.
“There’s different ways of winning ball games, and today was one of them,” Lindor stated. “Acuña coming in, going first to third. Sac flies. Playing good defense. … Whenever it seems like it’s not clicking but things are clicking, it’s a good thing.”
Initially Revealed: Might 26, 2025 at 7:42 PM EDT
