TORONTO -- It had to be him.

After weeks of ¡°finding a way,¡± the Mets looked to be on the verge of a reckoning on Wednesday afternoon, their struggling offense coming three outs away from being no-hit for the ninth time in franchise history.

They needed a catalyst. More than that, they needed a hero. Francisco Lindor walked up to lead off the top of the ninth.

Lindor launched a fastball from Bowden Francis deep into the right-field seats at Rogers Centre, ending the no-hitter threat and igniting a six-run inning as the Mets claimed a 6-2 win over the Blue Jays.

¡°I've never really quantified how big hits are, but it felt really good,¡± Lindor said from the visitors¡¯ clubhouse after the game. ¡°It was one of those hits that I could tell the vibes in the dugout just lifted.¡±

The tension was building for longer than eight innings.

Lindor¡¯s homer was just the Mets¡¯ second extra-base hit of the series, a sobering indication of how far back the pendulum has swung for the offense. But this team¡¯s been grinding through the cold spell for a while now, aided in large part by good fortune and great pitching.

Luck seemed to catch up to the Mets in this one. They only struck out once and they had their fair share of hard contact, but even when they found their timing, the best-hit line drives seemed to find an opposing glove. Meanwhile, Sean Manaea kept his team in it with 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball.

All these hitters could do was keep chipping away.

¡°We¡¯ve seen it in the past with no-hitters -- there's always a couple of defensive plays, balls being hit right at people, but you can't get too far ahead and think the worst,¡± said manager Carlos Mendoza. ¡°You¡¯ve just got to continue to have good at-bats, and eventually something good is going to happen.¡±

Lindor was the guy to set the good times in motion.

His 31st homer of the year ended Francis¡¯ day and gave the Mets new life. There was cheering, shouting and hugs in the dugout as Lindor took a long look at the Statcast-projected 398-foot blast before rounding the bases. The Blue Jays¡¯ call to the bullpen gave Lindor a chance to confer with teammates Jose Iglesias, Mark Vientos and Pete Alonso. Then it was time to win a baseball game.

¡°Iggy told Vientos, Pete and me [during] the pitching change: ¡®Let's give everything we got,¡¯¡± said Lindor. ¡°And that's literally what we went up to the box and did. We just [gave] him everything we had.¡±

Iglesias followed Lindor¡¯s homer with a single and the next two batters walked to load the bases. A pair of sac flies gave the Mets the lead before Francisco Alvarez capped the rally with a three-run homer to give New York its fifth straight series win and a one-game lead on the Braves for the third National League Wild Card spot.

Coming through for the Mets on Sept. 11, while donning a hat and gear in honor of New York¡¯s first responders, meant a little more to Lindor.

¡°It was very present in every one of our minds,¡± said Lindor. ¡°¡­ It's a special day for all of us. For every New Yorker, it¡¯s extremely special and for every American, it should be extremely special that we get to remember the ones that we lost that day.¡±

Best to bring some joy to Queens on this day.

This was the fifth time in franchise history that the Mets won a game after being no-hit through eight innings, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, with the last time coming on July 31, 1983, in a 1-0 win over the Pirates in 12 innings. Those six runs in the ninth were also the most by a team that didn¡¯t have any hits through eight frames in the expansion era (since 1961), per Elias.

As the road trip shifts to Philly for an NL East matchup, the Mets have something concrete to build on.

¡°Once Lindor hit that ball, you could feel it. You could sense [the momentum shift],¡± said Mendoza. ¡°¡­ This is something that we've been talking about as a team -- finding ways to win a baseball game. You have to execute. You have to have the awareness of where you are and ¡­ the situation.¡±

And if all else fails, hand it over to the MVP candidate.

Did Lindor know right away that his ninth-inning clout would leave the park?

¡°A hundred percent,¡± said Lindor.

Walking by the media setup in the clubhouse at the right time, Tyrone Taylor chimed in.

¡°Of course he did,¡± Taylor bellowed. ¡°He¡¯s a dawg.¡±