If the season opener were about the Mets lineup’s liveliness, the follow-up was about first survival, and then one swing.
Surviving all those Pirates base runners. Surviving an infield defense that looked as inexperienced as it is. Surviving first against Mitch Keller, who looks poised to take a leap, and later against a Pirates bullpen that bent but wouldn’t break. Surviving a squibber that would not go foul. Surviving the elements that come with playing baseball in New York in March.
On a frigid and windy Saturday that kept players and bats cold, the Mets gasped for nine quiet, scoreless innings. They found just enough life to keep the game going into 11 innings and then received the jolt of a swing they had long sought.
Luis Robert Jr. looked like the superstar he once was in clubbing a three-run walk-off home run to complete what the Mets so seldom completed last year: a legitimate, late-game comeback. The Mets, who trailed in the 10th and 11th, pulled out a 4-2 victory in front of 37,183 hooded and blanketed fans at Citi Field.
“It’s a different group,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of the Mets, who notably never won a game when trailing after eight innings last season.
The Mets had looked ready to retreat into the warmth of their clubhouse as losers in the 10th, when they first allowed a go-ahead RBI single to Nick Gonzales and then spoiled the good feelings from Luis Torrens’ own RBI single by failing to score with the bases loaded and no one out, groundouts from Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto costly.
The Mets had looked like hard-luck losers in the top of the 11th, when Richard Lovelady, who was on the cusp of stranding the automatic runner, watched Bryan Reynolds’ dribbler down the third-base line hug the grass and go for a go-ahead RBI single.
But in the first sign that this season might be as “different” as the roster itself, Robert provided the swing that swung the game.
The Cuban, surely not used to these temperatures, acknowledged that before stepping into the box, your hands get cold enough “that you can’t really feel them.” But then adrenaline takes over. He ignored a changeup out of the strike zone and found a slider that was low and away — a well-executed pitch that was nonetheless redirected, through the swirling winds and through air that hovered under 40 degrees, over the wall in left-center to ignite those freezing fans who remained.
“He’s talented. He’s gifted,” Mendoza said of Robert, whose tools are obvious. “With the way the wind was blowing, especially from left field, to just be able to leave the yard like that, in that situation, it goes to show you that this guy’s special.”
He was special in 2020, when he broke into the majors and finished second in AL Rookie of the Year voting with the White Sox. He was special in 2023, when he was an All-Star and received MVP votes while smashing 38 home runs.
He was less special the past two seasons, when his numbers plunged amid White Sox misery and injuries. An early focus with the Mets has been zeroing in on which pitches to slug and which to ignore.
“I think the one thing that great players have is knowing how to select pitches to swing at,” Robert said through interpreter Alan Suriel. “I think for me to be able to go back to being the player that I was and that I know that I’m capable of being, I think that’s going to be a big part of my game.”
Nearly forgotten by the end was the offensive frustration, following up an 11-run outburst Thursday with three hits through nine innings.
Nearly forgotten was a defense — which had looked sharp in the opener — prompting far more questions in Game 2, when Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco looked like a new third baseman and first baseman, respectively.
And nearly forgotten was the excellent work from the pitching staff. David Peterson, Huascar Brazobán, Luke Weaver, Brooks Raley and Devin Williams combined for nine scoreless innings in which they stranded 12 on base. Luis García and Lovelady allowed just unearned runs in extra innings.
Big swings have a way of heating up cold bodies and pushing all other memories to the side.
“Real special, honestly,” Robert said of his brief Mets tenure so far. “These last two games have really been special.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
