QUEENS, NY — The setting for the bottom of the ninth inning on Sunday afternoon would usually spell certain doom for the Mets.

Trailing 6-3 in the rubber game of the Subway Series at Citi Field against the Yankees, the Mets were riding a 91-game drought in which they had not won a game in which they trailed after eight innings. 

The last time they pulled out a victory in such a scenario was Pete Alonso’s dramatic home run in Game 3 of the 2024 National League Wild Card Series against the Milwaukee Brewers to punch New York’s ticket to the NLDS. 

How things have changed. 

Alonso is in Baltimore, and after missing the postseason altogether last season, the Mets are trying to dig themselves out of a miserable hole in which they started the 2026 campaign 10-21.

Tyrone Taylor might have sent the most important lifeline yet. 

With runners at the corners and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Taylor jumped on David Bednar’s first-pitch curveball and deposited it into the left-field seats to tie the game at six. 

After former Yankees closer Devin Williams kept his old team off the board in the top of the 10th, Carson Benge sent the Mets home with a series win on a game-winning fielder’s choice — a chopper in which second baseman Jazz Chisholm could not produce a throw after colliding with Anthony Volpe. 

Make that 1-91 in their last 92 games when trailing after eight innings.

“That’s impressive. That’s hard to do,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza joked. “Baseball is hard to explain at times. But now, we continue to come back in games, we get down early… we get punched in the face, we continue to get back up. This was a perfect example when we didn’t play our best game, and we were still able to shake hands at the end… I think the most important part is that we’re winning games and we’re winning series. It was a good homestand.”

The Mets went 5-1 on the six-game homestand that concluded on Sunday, beginning with a sweep of the Detroit Tigers before taking two of three from the Yankees. They managed to pick themselves off the canvas after losing their ace, Clay Holmes, to a fractured fibula in Friday night’s loss, adding to an already lengthy list of injuries that includes star shortstop Francisco Lindor.

They beat the Yankees 6-3 on Saturday night before Sunday’s dramatics, clinching their 10th win in their last 15 games. 

“Just being able to come back yesterday and win a really good baseball game, and then today, when we didn’t play our best, and you get down, and for us to continue to fight and for Tyrone to come through there, it’s just special,” Mendoza said. “A lot of people contributing, but it was too good to see the guys fight back and stay in the fight. It’s a good feeling right now.”

The last time the Mets were this close to .500 was April 17, when a 12-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs dropped them to 6 under at 7-13. That came in the thick of a 12-game losing streak, and a miserable stretch in which they lost 17 of 20 games — an unfathomable span for a team that was projected by many to be a top-three team in the National League this season. 

“We know that we gotta start playing better. It’s been rough,” Mendoza said. “That’s in the past. All we can control is every game, every series, and the mentality of winning series. We did that this homestand, and we have to continue to do it. It’s important for us to carry that momentum and just take it one day at a time…

“There’s definitely some momentum, especially for some of the guys that have been going through a rough stretch.”

They now have a golden opportunity to make up some more ground in the division. This week brings a six-game road trip against a pair of NL East division rivals, the Washington Nationals and Miami Marlins, who sit within 2.5 games of the last-place Mets. 

A successful trip could see them sitting in third place in the division by the time they return home on May 25 to host the Cincinnati Reds.

“The way that we’ve been playing in May is how we want to be until the last day of the regular season because we’ve been playing really good games,” starting pitcher Freddy Peralta said. “Even the games we lost, very close. You can see the difference, and that’s where we want to stay at.”

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