ANAHEIM -- It did not matter how it happened. It did not matter who did it. All that mattered for the Mets on Friday night was that they somehow, some way figured out how to win a baseball game.
For those tracking details, it was Ronny Mauricio who provided the hit in question at Angel Stadium -- the hit the Mets and their embattled manager, Carlos Mendoza, so badly needed to provide some sort of evidence that this season can be saved. Mauricio’s go-ahead homer in the seventh inning sent the Mets to a 4-3 win over the Angels, punctuated with relief work that retired the final 21 Angels hitters.
The victory was just New York’s fourth in its last 21 games.
It was a start.
Hours after president of baseball operations David Stearns offered a public (but not entirely popular) vote of confidence in Mendoza, the Mets seemed destined to stay mired in the same old rut when Jorge Soler hit a two-run homer off rookie starting pitcher Christian Scott in the first inning. The Angels extended their lead before Bo Bichette’s sharp single off starting pitcher Walbert Ureña sparked a sixth-inning rally that Marcus Semien punctuated with a game-tying, two-run single.
An inning later, Mauricio sent a José Fermin fastball screaming over the center-field fence at 111.3 mph. He stopped briefly near home plate to admire its flight, then broke into a jog and beat his chest with his right hand.
The Mets needed that one. Badly. And while one win cannot save their season, it did provide evidence that they may not be completely dead.
Scott, who was making his second start of the season after a brief and ineffective return from Tommy John surgery last week, retired 13 of the final 14 batters he faced to take a no-decision. Huascar Brazobán earned the win with a perfect sixth, and for once, the Mets’ high-leverage bullpen chain -- Brazobán to Brooks Raley to Luke Weaver to Devin Williams -- held firm.