Jesse Winker’s first home run as a member of the New York Mets could not have been scripted any better.
In an all-important rubber game against the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday afternoon at Citi Field, the trade-deadline acquisition lined a pinch-hit, full-count opposite-field home run to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning against closer Seranthony Dominguez to lift the Mets to a 4-3 victory.
“I just wanted to get on for [Francisco Lindor],” Winker said (h/t SNY). “I tried to put an AB together, make Dominguez’s job hard. As the at-bat went on, he missed on a couple fastballs and a slider so when it got to 3-2, I said ‘OK, just barrel it up.'”
He did just that, going down toward the bottom of the zone and golfing a 99-mph fastball out of the park. Trotting his way up the first base line, Winker came to a full stop and faced his dugout, emphatically pumped his fist, and threw his helmet down in ecstasy before completing his trip around the bases.
“Full blackout moment,” Winker said. “I have no other answer other than that. You just want to help any way you can and I was just really happy.”
Both Mets’ wins in the three-game series against the Orioles came in walk-off fashion — Francisco Alvarez sent Mets fans home happy with a walk-off blast on Monday night for a 4-3 win, also against Dominguez.
The series win ends an inconsistent nine-game road trip on a high note after going 3-3 against the lowly Oakland Athletics and Miami Marlins to stay nipping at the heels of the Atlanta Braves for the third and final Wild Card spot in the National League. The Mets (66-61) now embark on a make-or-break 10-game road trip that features matchups against the top two Wild-Card teams in the NL, the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks.
“Huge series for us especially winning two games with the way we did it against a really good team,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Both times we had the lead and we lost it late in the game and we were able to find a way. That’s what it’s all about, finding ways to win a game.”
Starting pitcher Sean Manaea retired the first 17 batters he faced in his pursuit of the Mets’ first-ever perfect game and his second-career no-hitter (also his first-career perfect game) before squandering the 2-0 lead he was staked to in a flash. With two outs in the seventh inning, he hit Jackson Holliday to give the Orioles their first base-runner of the afternoon and on the very next pitch, allowed an opposite-field home run to Austin Slater to tie the game.
Manaea went seven-plus innings, allowing three runs on three hits with nine strikeouts and zero walks while continuing a brilliant run of late. Over his last 13 starts, he has a 2.84 ERA and has gone at least seven innings in four of his last five outings.
“He’s been huge. Whenever we need a big outing, he’s continued to step up,” Mendoza said. “Today to win a series against a pretty good lineup, he’s up for the challenges and he continues to show up and continues to give us a chance. What a huge outing… we needed that one.”
He went into the eighth inning for the first time since 2022 and had a 3-2 lead after Mark Vientos’ 20th home run of the season in the bottom of the seventh, but he was pulled after allowing a lead-off infield single to Colton Cowser. Reliever Jose Butto ultimately allowed the tying run to score, though controversially.
Butto walked Ramon Urias on a full count, but the changeup that was called ball four by home-plate umpire Marvin Hudson was clearly a strike. With Cowser running — catcher Luis Torrens threw to second out of precaution, which beat the would-be base-stealer — it should have been a double play.
Instead, the Orioles had the bases loaded with no outs after Jackson Holliday walked. Following a Ryan O’Hearn strikeout that would have ended the inning, Adley Rutschmann tied the game with a sacrifice fly.
With his perfect game intact heading into the sixth inning, Manaea led off the frame with a strikeout of Cowser before Vientos narrowly nabbed Ramon Urias with a long, strong throw from the third-base bag on a slow roller for the second out. He lost his perfect game against the very next batter, plunking Holliday with a 2-2 fastball that got away from him.
His first pitch to Slater was a hanging slider in the middle of the zone, which the Orioles’ left-fielder sent over the right-field wall for his second home run of the season.
Francisco Lindor put the Mets ahead in the third inning with his 25th home run of the season off Orioles starter Cole Irvin, who was making his first start since July 29 after he was designated for assignment. His ninth home run from the right side of the plate went 401 feet off a 1-1 changeup that hung on the outside of the zone. With it, Lindor made some history as the first shortstop in MLB history to record three seasons of 25 home runs and 25 stolen bases. He also became just the third Met in franchise history to record multiple 25/25 seasons.
The Mets added a second run in the fifth when they put runners on the corners with one out. JD Martinez, who already had five RBI in the series, grounded into what very well could have been an inning-ending double play but the turn at second base was dropped by the highly-touted rookie, Jackson Holliday, which allowed Harrison Bader to score from third.
After the Orioles tied things up in the seventh off Manaea, Vientos immediately gave New York the lead back when he launched a Craig Kimbrel offering to dead center, continuing his breakout rookie campaign by becoming the 50th Met ever to reach the 20-home-run plateau.
