By MARK HALE
May 29, 2008
It was a night that had the home clubhouse flowing with belief and bursting with optimism.
"These are the types of games," David Wright said, "that can jump-start you."
The Mets won last night at Shea with a classic and dramatic 12-inning triumph that featured a game-tying ninth-inning comeback and a game-winning 12th-inning rally.
The guy who tied it? Endy Chavez.
The guy who won it? Fernando Tatis.
With the Mets down a run in the bottom of the 12th, Tatis ripped a walk-off two-run double to left, scoring Wright and Carlos Beltran to give the Mets a critical 7-6 victory over the first-place Marlins.
With the win, the Mets took the series over Florida and closed within 4½ games of first place. But after Monday's non-firing of Willie Randolph and subsequent loss that night, the Mets have now won two straight and seem to be primed.
Consider that last night Scott Schoeneweis admitted the Mets might have been "as close as you can get" to "rock bottom." Now?
"We went through a hard time," Tatis said. "Now we're coming back."
Added Duaner Sanchez, "This is what we probably need to get everything rolling."
Maybe it won't be that. The Mets have seemed ready to explode before and have followed it up with zero. They won five straight in April, then lost five of six. They took two over the Yankees just recently, then got swept by Atlanta.
That said, back in 2005 Randolph got his first victory with a tremendous win over the Braves, and afterward, Doug Mientkiewicz said, "This has a feeling like we just won two or three games in a row." Last night had the same.
"I think that we're ready to bust out," Randolph said.
Coming into the night, the Mets had been a pitiful 0-24 when trailing after eight innings. It seemed if you were a closer, you didn't have to worry much about the Mets hurting your place in the Rolaids relief standings.
But down 5-4 in the ninth, Chavez Pinch-hit against Kevin Gregg and promptly drilled a game-tying homer into the Met bullpen.
"There was just a different confidence about us tonight," Wright said.
The Met pen was spectacular, retiring the first 17 Marlins it faced into the 12th. With two outs, though, Sanchez served up Alfredo Amezaga's homer to put the Marlins up 6-5.
In the bottom of the 12th against Justin Miller, Wright walked and Beltran singled him to third. One out later, Tatis - who before this year had played 28 games in the majors since 2003 - delivered both runners.
Tatis exalted and was mobbed between third and home, saying afterward, "They crushed me."
Before the game, the Mets had talked about being united and seemed inclined to try to keep the good fortune going. Moises Alou actually said he believes the Randolph episode has brought the Mets "more together as a team."
Meanwhile, PR man Jay Horwitz wore a bright orange sports jacket for the second straight night (it produced a win on Tuesday), and will don it again tonight.
Said Chavez, "I think the ambience over here is changing. It's more positive."
It was all positive last night.
12 INNINGS Mets 7 Marlins 6
