On a night when the Mets handed out disguises to their fans, MJ Melendez saved his team from going into hiding after what would have been an ugly loss.
The Mets blew a trio of four-run leads, but Melendez’s first career walk-off hit stayed fair down the right-field line and landed in the seats for a one-out, two-run, 10th-inning home run to cap a 9-7 victory Friday against the Marlins.
“Honestly, pretty speechless,” Melendez said. “Kind of a surreal feeling. Something I had never done before at the major league level.”
It was a strange ending that included the Marlins pitching to Juan Soto with first base open and the winning run on second base. In an obvious intentional walk situation, Soto flew out and Melendez — who came off the bench earlier in the game — delivered after falling down 0-2 in the count against flamethrower Pete Fairbanks.
“I knew I got it. I just didn’t know if it was going to stay fair,” Melendez said. “I’ve been hooking a lot of balls foul the last few weeks, so that was in the back of my mind.”
It took seven batters for the Mets (24-33) to score twice as many runs Friday as they did over the course of three games off the same pitching staff last weekend.
Before many of the 39,386 fans at Citi Field finished their first beer, A.J. Ewing and Brett Baty delivered two-run singles in the first inning and the Mets had their first four-run rally unassisted by ghost runner since May 6.
And they needed every bit of the rare offensive outburst because ace Freddy Peralta ran out of gas on an inefficient 94 pitches and the back of the bullpen imploded.
“At the big league level, you take the wins however they come,” manager Carlos Mendoza said, “especially with how hard it’s been for us.”
Marlins starter Max Meyer wasn’t quite as baffling as when he held the Mets to one hit over seven innings last Saturday in a series that highlighted the lineup’s recent ineptitude. The Mets totaled two runs during that three-game sweep.
After two walks and a single loaded the bases, Ewing singled through the middle. He then stole second base to set the stage for Baty’s two-out one-hopper into right field.
The Mets’ only other four-plus-run inning during the last 20 games was against the Nationals, when they plated 10 in the 12th and teed off on pitching infielder Jorbit Vivas.
But the 4-0 lead didn’t hold up. Neither did leads of 5-1 and 6-2.
Against the backdrop of Mets president David Stearns saying Friday afternoon that it is too “early to have very robust trade discussions,” Peralta — their most valuable rental chip — cruised through the first eight outs. He stranded Xavier Edwards on third base after a 408-foot, two-out RBI triple during a third inning.
But Peralta never recovered from the 37 pitches — including 12 in one at-bat — needed to get through the third. He allowed an RBI double in the fourth and two runs in the fifth.
Peralta squandered a chance to qualify for a victory when he couldn’t get the final out of the fifth. A dribbler scooted under first baseman Mark Vientos’ glove to score one run and set up another as the Marlins drew within 6-4.
“Good at-bats they took against me, really good approach,” Peralta said. “I was navigating and coming out of the innings without big damage.”
Mendoza burned through three relievers to get through the seventh despite the unavailability of closer Devin Williams even with Thursday’s off day. Williams threw 34 pitches saving Wednesday’s win.
Instead of sticking with left-hander Brooks Raley — who recorded one out in the seventh but threw 24 pitches Wednesday — or turning to usual setup man Luke Weaver, Mendoza called on Tobias Myers to protect a 7-5 lead with two lefties due up in the eighth.
“We were trying to stay away from Raley,” Mendoza said. “If he was in the game, it was going to be a batter or two. I was trying to avoid that situation, but the game called for it.”
The Marlins completed their game-tying comeback against Myers on Owen Cassie’s two-run home run into the right-field bullpen with one-out in the eighth.
Because of Melendez, Mendoza didn’t need to borrow one of the packages of sunglasses and mustaches that the Mets passed out to the crowd in honor of former Mets manager Bobby Valentine, who famously returned to the dugout in disguise after an ejection in 1999.
Weaver and Austin Warren pitched scoreless ninth and 10th innings, respectively.
Vientos hit the second-longest homer of his career (445 feet) in the third inning.
