Perhaps Francisco Lindor summed up Thursday’s miraculous comeback best:
“You don’t have too many nights like this.”
The Mets entered the ninth inning of Thursday’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies down 7-1 after Phillies starter Aaron Nola kept their bats quiet all night. One by one, Mets hitters started building what eventually turned into a historically epic rally, scoring seven runs to stun the Phillies and come away with an 8-7 win.
“Things like that build,” Buck Showalter said after the game. “I’m trying not to be giddy because that’s a really good club over there and we were fortunate, but we just strung a lot of good at-bats together by some good hitters. It will make everybody kind of know that as long as we’ve got some outs, we’ve got a chance.”
With just three outs to play with in the ninth, Starling Marte got things started with an infield single. Francisco Lindor then homered, which at the time felt like more of a good moment solely for him, as he’d been in a 1-for-22 slump. But it turned out to be the start of something incredible.
“When Lindor hit that home run, I got excited almost as if I was the one who hit that home run” Marte said. “You see him go out there every single at-bat and he’s battling and battling and trying to get positive results. In a moment like that, it was just one of those euphoric moments that kind of took over, and then after that, the lineup really got going and they were battling and battling, and we were able to take it to another level.”
Four hits after Lindor’s homer, the Mets found themselves trailing by just two runs, and Brandon Nimmo came through, lining a two-run single off closer Corey Knebel to tie the game 7-7. The inning was capped off by Marte, as he launched a double off the wall to score Nimmo and put the Mets up by a run.
“I’m an optimist, but … I just keep going until they blow the whistle, so to say,” said Nimmo. “You just never give up and you just say ‘Okay, when it comes to be my turn I give it everything I’ve got.’ And it seems like every guy on this team has that mentality, and when you do that it allows for things like this to happen, and that’s the only way.
“It’s not necessarily like ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to win this game.’ It’s more of ‘I’m going to go do my job when I get up there. I’m going to give it everything I’ve got and I’m going to be prepared when I get up there.’ And that’s the only way a night like tonight happens.”