7-run fourth gives Mets fans reason to cheer in desperately needed 'W'

NEW YORK -- An unfamiliar sound rang out after the fourth inning Tuesday night at Citi Field, a ballpark that has been as hostile to the Mets as anywhere in the country. On this occasion, fans around the stadium stood up from their seats and cheered.

That’s simply not a sound the Mets had heard much recently -- not as they endured a 12-game losing streak, not as they dropped 15 of 17, not as their manager’s job status came into question, not as they lost Francisco Lindor to injury, not as their clubhouse became a daily staging ground for questions about their inability to do this, about their inability to do that, about their inability, at the end of each day, to win Major League Baseball games.

No, cheers had barely been part of Citi Field’s fabric until the Mets erupted for seven runs in the fourth inning of an 8-0 win over the Nationals, giving themselves and their fans at least a one-day reprieve.

Facing embattled Washington starter Zack Littell, the Mets took an early lead when Bo Bichette sent his first pitch over the right-center-field fence for a homer. Then they broke out in the fourth, beginning when Marcus Semien hit a bases-loaded chopper to third base that Jorbit Vivas could not handle. Two runs scored, sending the Mets to the races. Carson Benge followed with a two-run single, Bichette hit a sacrifice fly and Soto -- playing through discomfort in his left forearm -- capped the rally with a two-run homer.

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“I think we all felt it there -- this is kind of like the break we were looking for,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of Vivas’ error.

It was New York’s most productive inning since last Aug. 29.

“They just seemed to pile it on from there pretty quickly,” Nationals manager Blake Butera said.

The Nationals never even sniffed a comeback, as Clay Holmes struck out six and generated 10 ground-ball outs over six scoreless innings.

It was, in short, the exact type of performance the Mets needed as they attempt to turn around their season.

“I think you’d be crazy to say you don’t really know the situation as a player,” Holmes said.

“You know we haven’t been playing well. You know the expectations here in New York. You’re aware of it. I think sometimes the hard part is trying to do too much in those situations, pressing, maybe trying to do things you don’t need to. You’ve really just got to have a relaxed focus of who you are and what you can do, and show up every day and do it. If you try to climb out of a hole in one day, it rarely ever works.”

Unlike the Red Sox and the National League East rival Phillies, who dismissed manager Rob Thomson on Tuesday after weeks paralleling New York’s freefall down the standings, the Mets have chosen not to shake up their operation in a significant way. Instead, Mendoza is still here, charged with figuring out how to fix this team.

Over the past two weeks, the Mets have tried most things within their power other than firing their manager. They’ve made moves at the margins. Mendoza has shuffled the lineup. He has rejiggered the rotation. President of baseball operations David Stearns has called up players. None of it did much to help the Mets, but perhaps Tuesday can be the thing that finally begets some change.

Maybe it was something Mendoza said that sparked the Mets to a much-needed victory. Or maybe it was simply Littell, a soft-tossing right-hander who entered the night sporting the second-worst ERA (7.56) of any MLB starter with at least 25 innings.

Whatever the cause, the result was a win the Mets were desperate to claim as they attempt to spare their manager’s job and, ultimately, climb back into contention.

“I don’t think it’s going to be one day, good or bad, that’s really going to change much,” Holmes said. “It’s having a long-term view of, if we really want to get to where we want to go, it’s going to have to be a daily showing up and giving it all we have. It’s nice to see that today, and I think it’s going to take doing it again tomorrow and doing it again the next day and just stacking days on top of each other.”