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Try it freeHere is what is becoming clear about the 2025 Mets: They will not give up.
Friday, the Mets were down two runs after four innings and one run after five and a half.
They kept climbing back and took a lead in the eighth — and then served up a painful, game-tying home run in the top of the ninth.
So they went to work one more time.
Francisco Lindor demolished a walk-off home run, the third of his career and first with this organization, to lift the Mets to an entertaining 5-4 win over the Cardinals in front of 39,627 loud fans at Citi Field who enjoyed warmer weather, crisper play and a never-say-die attitude.
“The game’s not over until it’s actually over,” Lindor said after his 250th career home run made the difference.
The game could have been over several times, and the momentum evaporated in the top of the ninth. Manager Carlos Mendoza gave a one-run lead to Huascar Brazobán because Edwin Diaz had pitched on consecutive days, and the first batter he saw — Brendan Donovan — bounced a home run off the netting along the right-field foul pole.
But on a night of bouncing back, Brazobán did, too, and struck out the next three hitters.
“As soon as they got back in the dugout,” Mendoza said, “They were like, ‘All right, let’s do it right here.’ ”
They did it quickly.
With righty Ryan Fernandez on the mound, Lindor talked with the club’s hitting coaches about the approach and then stepped to the plate.
He saw a 1-1 cutter well, but he did not see where it landed.
He sent a towering drive into upper deck in right field and stared into his own dugout, looking for a celebrating Jesse Winker.
He then began the slow jog that ended with a party at home plate.
In a game that had shades of 2024, of course it was the unofficial team captain who came through. And, of course, the unofficial team captain placed the credit everywhere else.
“The guys did a fantastic job today,” Lindor said after the Mets (13-7) took a second straight game from the Cards.
In order, Lindor name-dropped David Peterson (whose stuff was excellent), Max Kranick (untouched again), Tyrone Taylor (RBI triple), Pete Alonso (who reached base three times, including a triple), Juan Soto (who came through with an RBI single) and Luis Torrens (RBI double).
“It felt like a fantastic team win,” said Lindor, the fifth shortstop to reach 250 homers.
A team win that never seemed over until it actually was.
They did not lead until there was one out in the bottom of the eighth — an inning that had seemed doomed earlier.
With Luisangel Acuña on second, Brandon Nimmo hit a grounder to Gold Glover Nolan Arenado at third, and Acuña decided to test Arenado’s legs: Acuña sprinted and angled away from Arenado, and Arenado tried to cut him off.
Both dove, and Arenado appeared to miss the tag — but Acuña overslid the base, and Arenado’s second lunge apparently tagged Acuña before he returned to the base. The Mets challenged, but the call stood.
What seemed to be a crushing play was not: Ex-Met Phil Maton tried a pickoff and bounced the ball into foul territory, allowing Nimmo to take second, before Torrens came through with an RBI double that gave the Mets an edge for all of a few minutes.
But even after Brazobán’s ninth, the Mets believed, as they had all night. Pete Alonso was particularly vocal.
“He kept saying, ‘We’re going to win this game. We’re going to win this game,’ ” Lindor reported.
Down 3-2 in the sixth, leadoff hitter Mark Vientos pulled an eighth-pitch-of-the-at-bat home run that just cleared the left-field wall, his second dinger of the season and in as many days.
Down 2-0 in the fifth, a resurgent Brett Baty doubled and Taylor sent a triple into right-center on consecutive pitches to score one run.
After Lindor flew out, it was Soto — who has been a slightly polarizing presence, but walked to the plate to loud cheers — who snapped an 0-for-12 skid with an RBI single into right.
“Just amazing to see them come through inning after inning,” said Peterson, who was charged with three runs in 5 ¹/₃ innings, at times overwhelming (nine strikeouts) and at times the victim of well-placed Cardinals hits.
But he handed the ball to Kranick, Ryne Stanek and Brazobán, who combined to allow the one run on one hit.
“This group, man,” Mendoza said, “they never give up.”
