NEW YORK -- As two Yankees infielders collided, Carson Benge raised his arms high into the air, celebrating the walk-off win that was unfolding behind him. The Mets had just pulled off the type of magic that had been foreign to them for the last year and a half. The party was about to begin.
Juan Soto was first out of the dugout, chasing Benge down the first-base line. Then came the rest of them, celebrating a 7-6, 10-inning Subway Series win over the Yankees that seemed, for much of the afternoon, exceedingly unlikely to pass. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the Mets’ win probability stood at 5 percent.
Then Tyrone Taylor, of all people, hooked a game-tying three-run homer around Citi Field’s left-field foul pole to breathe new life into the Mets. An inning later, Benge hit a walk-off fielder’s choice to give New York its first win when trailing after eight innings since Game 3 of the 2024 Wild Card Series.
Pete Alonso’s three-run homer that night remains one of the most impactful hits in franchise history. This game may not have exactly been comparable, but it at least provided further evidence that the Mets -- despite all their injuries, despite all their imperfections -- are not about to roll over and die.
“Awesome,” Taylor said. “That’s all I can say is awesome.”
From Alonso’s blast in the ’24 Wild Card Series until Sunday, the Mets had lost 96 consecutive games when trailing after eight, including the postseason. And for the first eight innings Sunday, they didn’t exactly look like a team primed to buck that trend. Midway through the afternoon, Bo Bichette dropped a popup to pour gasoline on what became a four-run Yankees rally in the sixth. Mets starter Freddy Peralta again could not record more than 15 outs, and when seldom-used long man Sean Manaea entered, the early results were everything but good.
Then, somehow, the Mets steadied things. Luis Torrens hit a pinch-hit two-run double in the sixth. Manaea retired six of the final seven batters he faced. Taylor tied things in the ninth. Devin Williams stranded the go-ahead run in scoring position in the top of the 10th. A.J. Ewing laid down a crucial sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the inning. And the Mets walked things off moments later. All told, it was the largest ninth-inning deficit they had overcome in Subway Series history.
Asked afterward about New York’s losing streak when trailing after eight, Manaea racked his brain.
“I heard it was a pretty astronomical number,” he said.
Ninety-one games, came the answer. The Pete Alonso game.
“Come on,” Manaea said, eyes growing wide. “That’s crazy.” He paused for a moment, giving it more thought.
“Well, shoot. If you’re going to do it, you’re going to do it in a fashion, I guess.”
That’s one way to put it. This weekend could have been a cinematic nightmare for the Mets, who lost Clay Holmes to a major leg injury on Friday night and trailed Saturday before pulling off a milder comeback in that one. Then the Mets rallied in the finale for one of their best wins of the year, adding additional complexity to the narrative of their season.
Had the Mets lost, the postgame talk would have surely revolved around Bichette’s blunder, Manaea’s roster spot, the Mets’ myriad injuries and more. Instead, the clubhouse was jocular.
“It’s always good when you show some fight back,” was how Benge put it.
It’s impossible to say what, exactly, the rest of this season will bring. The Mets are still missing umpteen players and still making plenty of mistakes. They’ve talked openly about Holmes’ broken fibula as an emotional drag on their season. But their ability to make crucial plays when they need them most can only help the Mets as they try to limp back into contention.
While the Yankees may not have entered this installment of the Subway Series playing elite baseball either, they still represented a litmus test for the shorthanded Mets -- their hardest three games on this stretch of schedule. Taking two out of three not only bought the Mets some time for their injured players to recover, but offered them a bit of added confidence that even without a full deck, they can accomplish plenty.
“We know that we’ve got to start playing better -- period,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It’s been rough. It’s been … yeah. But that’s in the past. Now, all we can control is every game, every series -- the mentality of winning series. We did that this homestand, and we’ve got to continue to do it.”