'No sense of panic': Mets rally late, top Yanks

NEW YORK -- For a moment, there was confusion. Tim Locastro ranged back, and although he was never going to catch José Peraza’s line drive to the warning track, Locastro at least expected to play the carom. Only there was no carom. A fan reached over the wall to snatch Peraza’s hit, leading to the go-ahead runs in the Mets’ 10-5 win over the Yankees in Game 1 of Sunday’s seven-inning doubleheader.

That’s how things have gone this year for the Mets, who celebrated eight consecutive weeks in first place by securing a Subway Series win over the Yankees without need of a rubber game. Despite their injuries and inconsistencies, the Mets have lived a charmed existence.

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“I just think there’s no sense of panic, ever, with this team,” Mets starter Marcus Stroman said. “It’s a really confident group. Everybody knows what we’re capable of, and the energy gets transferred from player to player. Even when we’re down big, I just feel like there’s no sense of panic. Everybody knows we can get back in the game at any point. So we have a great, great, great, great, great vibe here.”

Asked to describe the 2021 Mets, Peraza used just one word: “Unbelievable.”

Consider the latest evidence. Trailing by one run entering the seventh, the Mets tied things up on Pete Alonso’s homer off Aroldis Chapman. Then, they loaded the bases off Chapman and Lucas Luetge. With one out, Peraza then sent a deep drive to left, where a fan intercepted it.

Initially, Peraza had no idea where the ball had gone; all he knew was he had hit it at least far enough to score the go-ahead run from third. Only after all three baserunners crossed home did umpires meet and rule it a two-run ground-rule double, forcing a runner back to third. One pitch later, Brandon Nimmo followed with a two-run single, and the rout was on.

“Once it started, it couldn’t be stopped,” Alonso said. “That’s what we want to keep continuing as the year progresses. We just want to be relentless on every single pitching staff we face. To be able to come up big, especially late in a ballgame, that was clutch by everybody that stepped up to the dish.”

The Mets had trailed for nearly the entire game despite knocking All-Star pitcher Gerrit Cole out in the fourth. Their own starter, Stroman, gave up five runs (three earned) in five innings, allowing a go-ahead run to score on a fifth-inning wild pitch.

Stroman admitted that he “struggled” during his outing, but he had little reason to worry after his teammates’ late comeback changed the narrative. So it has been all season for the Mets, who have faced a seemingly endless barrage of adversity and criticism while dealing with injuries to nearly every member of their Opening Day roster. At one point, the Mets had 17 players on the IL. But many of them are once again healthy, and even as the Mets waited for that to happen, they managed to maintain their first-place standing in the National League East.

Sunday's first game was just another example of a team convinced of its ability to snatch wins from the grasp of would-be defeats. That the comeback happened in front of the largest crowd (42,714) the Mets have seen since 2019 only added to its impact.

“It’s a big moment regardless -- comeback win against a high-quality team,” Alonso said. “Every single day is a new opportunity for us. No matter who we’re facing, no matter what color jersey is across from us, regardless of the opponent: this is the big leagues. Every single team that we face is the best in the world. … But it is really cool having it here.”