rewrite this content and keep HTML tags
For most of Saturday night, much of the Mets lineup looked like it wanted to be anywhere but a cold and damp Citi Field against the Blue Jays, facing ex-Met Chris Bassitt.
They wasted leadoff doubles in each of the first two innings and at one point saw Bassitt retire 17 of 18 batters.
And then they left the bases loaded in the seventh before finally breaking through in the eighth — courtesy of Jesse Winker’s two-run triple.
That set up Francisco Lindor’s game-winning sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth, as the Mets beat the Blue Jays 3-2 for their fourth win in five games after dropping two of the first three of the season in Houston.
Jose Siri set up the winning rally with a one-out walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. He got to third on Luis Torrens’ single to left and scored when Lindor smoked a liner to center on the first pitch of the at-bat.
Edwin Díaz got the Mets to the bottom of the ninth tied, getting out of trouble after he gave up back-to-back singles with one out to Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. before he struck out Anthony Santander.
With Andres Gimenez at the plate, Díaz threw a wild pitch to move the runners to second and third, but recovered to get Gimenez swinging.
The Mets’ tying rally started in the eighth when Lindor opened with a walk and Juan Soto sent him to second with a single.
Left-hander Brendon Little struck out Pete Alonso and got Brandon Nimmo to fly out to deep center to send Lindor to third with two outs.
The lefty-swinging Winker, the only batter to figure out Bassitt earlier in the game, crushed a two-run triple to right to tie the game.
With the go-ahead run on third, though, Mark Vientos struck out against Nick Sandlin.
The win covered up other missed chances in the seventh, when they loaded the bases and pinch hitter Starling Marte grounded out.
The comeback was made possible because of a solid effort from the pitching staff, as Griffin Canning gave up just one run in four-plus innings and the bullpen was again strong.
Canning retired the first two batters of the game before a walk to Santander and a base hit to right by Gimenez. With runners on the corners, the right-hander struck out Alejandro Kirk to escape the jam.
Lindor led off for the second straight game with a double and moved to third on Soto’s fly out to center.
But with the infield in, Alonso whiffed and Nimmo grounded out.
Canning escaped two-out trouble again in the second.
Winker opened the bottom of the inning with another leadoff double, but the slumping Vientos and Brett Baty both struck out and Siri popped out.
Winker tripled with two outs in the fourth — thanks to a misplay in right by George Springer — and Vientos fanned again.
Canning’s night ended after back-to-back singles by Roden and Bichette in the fifth.
With Guerrero coming up, José Buttó entered and Guerrero’s base hit to left scored Roden for the game’s first run.
A fly ball by Santander sent Bichette to third and a walk by Gimenez loaded the bases for Kirk, but Buttó recovered and struck out Kirk and got Springer to ground to shortstop, where a strong throw from Lindor ended the inning.
Consecutive two-out doubles in the sixth gave Toronto a 2-0 lead, with Roden and Bichette combining to knock Buttó out of the game.
And the Mets offense couldn’t get anything going against Bassitt, but it didn’t matter.
