Back in the win column! Mets snap 12-game skid with 1st victory in 2 weeks

NEW YORK -- After two weeks of trying, the Mets finally picked up a victory.

They edged the Twins, 3-2, snapping their 12-game losing streak. But it wasn’t easy. New York made its share of mistakes and lost shortstop Francisco Lindor to left calf tightness. For example, with Mark Vientos on first base in the sixth inning, Marcus Semien doubled to right-center field off left-hander Kendry Rojas. Vientos tried to score from first even though third-base coach Tim Leiper gave him the stop sign. Vientos was thrown out easily.

Vientos didn’t regret missing the stop sign. He was simply trying to be aggressive on the play.

“I was following my instincts. Once I saw the ball hit the wall, I was like, ‘I was going to score,’” Vientos recalled. “[Leiper] did give me the stop sign, but I followed my instincts and I went home.”

Despite the mistake, manager Carlos Mendoza remained positive that his team would come up victorious.

“You can’t come to the ballpark expecting the worst when you are going through a very rough stretch,” he said. “You come to the ballpark expecting good things to happen. Yes, it doesn’t matter how hard it is or how things are unfolding; your mindset has to expect something good to happen.”

Something positive did happen in the eighth inning, when Vientos made up for the blunder. With the score tied at 2 and right-hander Justin Topa on the mound, the Mets had runners on first and second with two outs. Vientos hit a blooper that dropped in front of right fielder Matt Wallner for a base hit, which allowed Brett Baty to score the go-ahead run.

“I was like, ‘Yes, we scored a run.’ I did my job and we took the lead,” Vientos said. “We are happy to get this win. We can just go play. It’s still early. We are in April. We wanted to get this one out of the way and still play them.”

Reliever Luke Weaver got the win, tossing 1 1/3 scoreless innings while working around a two-out single in the ninth. After striking Byron Buxton to end the game, Weaver looked up into the sky, grateful for the victory.

“Today, it was a sigh of relief,” Weaver said. “We have a lot more games to play. It doesn’t mean we go on a 50-game winning streak. We still have to do our business tomorrow, put in the right work and do all the right things. But today was a step in the right direction. We won a hard-fought ballgame. It was going to take a game like that to get us going.”

It was a game that saw right-hander Clay Holmes give the Mets length, allowing two runs in seven innings. He picked up his first no-decision of the season, but the team victory was all he wanted.

“Obviously, it was a tough stretch there. It’s a crazy thing and things start spinning. There is a lot going on,” Holmes said. “Just to feel the win again, seeing everybody smiling. It’s a great feeling.”

But the victory was bittersweet. On the night when the Mets took Juan Soto off the injured list, Lindor went down with an injury of his own.

It occurred in the fourth inning. After Francisco Alvarez doubled to right-center field against Twins left-hander Connor Prielipp, Lindor struggled running around the bases, but he managed to score New York’s second run of the game. He did not return for the top of the fifth.

Mendoza said that Lindor was going for an MRI on Thursday and implied that a stint on the IL was a possibility.