NEW YORK — These are the special stretches in special seasons, when a baseball game feels preordained, when it feels less like something about to happen than something waiting to be revealed. Inevitable, in other words, which is how the New York Mets have felt for the better part of a week.
Mark Vientos was New York’s hero in its eighth straight victory on Friday night, a 6-4 win in 10 innings over the Cincinnati Reds. Vientos’ two-run homer off Justin Wilson walked it off in the 10th; it was a fitting bookend given his two-run homer opened the scoring in the first.
“He’s been everything and more,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It’s just really cool and special to see someone who went through a lot early in the year and come through day in, day out and help us win games. He just continues to get better.”
Twice, Cincinnati evened the score with two-run homers. But the Reds, like the Boston Red Sox before them and like the Chicago White Sox for all but one inning before them, could not take the lead against New York. The Mets have not trailed at the end of a full inning since the first inning of that series in Chicago, seven days and 63 frames ago. They have trailed at the end of 19 of their last 136 innings dating back to August 21.
“We were confident we were going to win that game,” said Vientos. “If it wasn’t going to be me, it was going to be Pete (Alonso) or someone behind him.”
What. A. Finish. ⚡️@MarkVientos_5 | #LGM pic.twitter.com/SxsHsddIf0
— New York Mets (@Mets) September 7, 2024
“Everybody’s doing their thing,” said starter Sean Manaea, whose string of quality starts was snapped by that second Cincinnati two-run homer in the seventh inning. “It’s just a recipe for success.”
Vientos has become as integral an ingredient as any for New York. Sent down at the end of spring training when the Mets signed J.D. Martinez, he seized the everyday job at the hot corner from Brett Baty in May. Since then, he’s outhit third-base luminaries like Rafael Devers, Alex Bregman and Manny Machado. Only José Ramírez has done more with the bat at the position.
“He’s been incredible,” Manaea said. “He’s just consistently stringing together good at-bats and playing great defense.”
Indeed, what’s perhaps most impressive about Vientos’ 2024 season has been that consistency. He’s traded in the traditional peaks and valleys of inexperience for a stolid stacking of good game upon good game, with nary a slump to interrupt it. His longest hitless streak of the season is 11 at-bats.
He was put in position to come through in the 10th by another scoreless night for the New York bullpen. Reed Garrett, Edwin Díaz and Jose Buttó combined for 3 1/3 perfect innings. Over the Mets’ eight-game winning streak, the pen has tossed 25 innings and allowed two runs; that’s a 0.72 ERA. Opposing hitters have been nearly twice as likely to strike out (29 times in that stretch) than reach base (16).
That revival has been spearheaded by Díaz. Since blowing consecutive games to the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks on the last road trip, the closer has looked better than at any point this season. His fastball velocity is back above 98 on average, and he’s struck out 12 of the 16 men he’s faced in four hitless innings since that loss in the desert.
“My level is up right now,” he said. “I’ve been building my confidence.”
So, too, have the Mets. They’re now 20-8 when Manaea takes the mound; he’s just the third pitcher in the majors to start 20 wins for his team this season. They own the majors’ best record over the last three months. They remain tied with Atlanta for the final wild card, but they’ve pulled back within 1 1/2 games of Arizona for the next spot up.
It all feels a bit like late-summer magic, the kind that has sprinkled in Queens during the most memorable of seasons for the franchise.
“I don’t know if I believe in magic,” Vientos said, “but we have the energy and the right mindset going into this month because we’re hungry.
“September is the right time to get hot.”
(Photo: Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)
