NEW YORK -- High above the Citi Field playing surface, in a spot where impercipient ballpark visitors might never notice it, rests a single purple seat amidst a sea of green. This is the Grimace seat, a marketing promotion from last season that has since gained permanent residence in the second right-field deck.
Grimace himself has yet to show his face at Citi Field. Another 2024 charmer, Jose Iglesias, is gone to San Diego, his ¡°OMG¡± signs a relic of last summer. The Mets -- and rightfully so -- chose to stuff those memories into a time capsule, cognizant of the fact that each year unfolds differently. Gripping too tightly to the past can be unhealthy behavior.
Yet even without them, the aura of last year still appears to be hovering over Queens. For the 2025 Mets, that¡¯s very much a good thing.
The proof wasn¡¯t just in Francisco Lindor¡¯s walk-off sacrifice fly in the ninth inning of a 3-2 win Saturday over the Blue Jays. It was in a spirited two-run rally in the eighth. It was in Pete Alonso, who turned to his fellow infielders during a sixth-inning pitching change and told them, ¡°We¡¯re going to have great at-bats, and we¡¯re going to win.¡± It was in a boisterous crowd that not only endured misting rain, mid-40s temperatures and chilling winds, but did it all with uncommon gusto, singing in unison to Lindor¡¯s walk-up music and taunting the Blue Jays when their pitch clocks ran low.
The Mets fed off all of it. These are the tendencies of a team that has proven it can win close and important games with regularity.
¡°I think it¡¯s part of our culture,¡± Lindor said.
Consider that a culture impervious to rain, to cold, and to an opposing pitcher -- in this case, former teammate Chris Bassitt -- apparently hellbent on keeping the Mets off the bases. It wasn¡¯t until the eighth inning Saturday that the team began rallying, starting with Lindor. When the shortstop drew a leadoff walk with the Mets trailing by two runs, he animatedly clapped his hands before jogging to first.
Lindor and Juan Soto both later scored on a Jesse Winker triple, the second of the game for a player whose most recent three-bagger had come in 2021. Then, after Edwin D¨ªaz pitched his way into and out of trouble in the top of the ninth, the Mets rallied anew on a Jose Siri walk and a Luis Torrens single. (Torrens, a late scratch due to right forearm soreness, had entered the game just one inning earlier.)
That brought Lindor to the plate with runners on the corners and one out, needing only a medium-depth fly ball to win the game. On the first pitch he saw, he provided exactly that.
¡°You understand that you stay in the moment,¡± Lindor said of his process. ¡°You understand that you¡¯ve got to play 27 outs. You understand that you have to stay the course. ¡ You just rely on each other. It¡¯s not about what you do. It¡¯s about what we all do collectively.¡±
Added Winker: ¡°Winning a game like that is big. It¡¯s just fun.¡±
This type of collective fortitude, manager Carlos Mendoza said, can be a learned skill. Mets teams of the past weren¡¯t always good at this sort of thing, but these Mets have clearly demonstrated a knack for it. Saturday¡¯s walk-off was their 12th in the last 366 days, tied with the Giants for second-most in the Majors during that span. Lindor has been responsible for four walk-off RBIs since joining the Mets, who have already come from behind in three of their five wins this season.
¡°We saw it a lot last year,¡± Mendoza said. ¡°We got a lot of these guys back. Every year is different. It¡¯s still early. But those are some good signs there early on."
At 5-3, the Mets are enjoying a much finer start than last year, when they opened the season 0-5 before walking off the Tigers in their sixth game -- the first of their dozen walk-off victories since that time. But, as Mendoza noted, the season is long. Merely resembling the team that made it to within two wins of the 2024 World Series isn¡¯t enough.
The Mets must prove that once again, they can rely on these traits whenever they need them.
¡°We had some wins last year coming from behind, and today was one of those wins that reminded you -- we¡¯ve got a really good team,¡± D¨ªaz said. ¡°We just have to keep fighting until the end.¡±