Sports

Will A Rare Normal Win Spark A Resurgence For The New York Mets?

By Jerry Beach Lindys Sports

The New York Mets have mastered the art of the improbable over the last 64-plus seasons.

After debuting with a modern record 120 losses in 1962, the Mets averaged 103 losses the next six seasons before winning the World Series in 1969. Four years later, the Mets were in last place in the NL East on Aug. 30 before winning the division with 82 victories and making it to the seventh game of the World Series against the dynastic Oakland Athletics.

In 1986, the Mets were one strike away from losing the World Series to the Boston Red Sox 16 times in Game 6 before, of course, coming back to force Game 7, which they won.

There was Robin Ventura's Grand Slam Single in 1999, Mike Piazza's game-winning homer in the first sports event in New York following 9/11 and the Grimace/OMG-fueled run to the NL Championship Series in 2024…and hard to fathom collapses to cost the Mets seemingly sure playoff spots in 2007, 2008 and 2025.

But on Tuesday night, the Mets finally did the impossible.

The Mets finally played a normal baseball game.

Mets Cruise By Nationals

The Mets, who entered Tuesday with 15 losses in their last 17 games and tied with the Philadelphia Phillies for the worst record in baseball, would have taken a win achieved in any fashion.

But they really needed the uneventful nature of the 8-0 victory over the Washington Nationals. Bo Bichette hit a tone-setting leadoff homer on the first pitch of the game (thereby equaling the number of runs the Mets scored in 286 pitches while being swept by the Colorado Rockies in Sunday's doubleheader).

The Mets took advantage of Nationals third baseman Jorbit Vivas muffing a potential inning-ending double play in the fourth to score seven runs, a surge capped by Juan Soto's two-run, opposite field homer.

A trio of pitchers ensured the outburst would not be wasted. Clay Holmes, whose successful transition to starting is a reminder that David Stearns' tenure thus far has not been completely disastrous, threw six terrific innings of three-hit ball before Tobias Myers tossed two innings and Craig Kimbrel struck out all three batters he faced in the ninth.

When Did the Mets Last Play A Normal Game?

I am not 100 percent sure this is the Mets' first normal game since Aug. 13 - the night the Mets scored six runs off former teammate Carlos Carrasco in the first two innings, yet gave up nine runs in the third inning on their way to an 11-6 loss to the Atlanta Braves. Oh well, I can't imagine the Mets will miss the playoffs by one game.

But it's a pretty good guess that most of the subsequent 70 games came with some sort of reminder like this from Larry Fleisher, my good friend and fellow Lindy's scribe.

At the very least, I KNOW the Mets' previous two wins over the previous three weeks - an incomprehensible sentence - were anything but normal, which of course is par for the course for this franchise.

The Mets snapped their 12-game losing streak last Wednesday, when Francisco Lindor suffered a left calf injury scoring in fourth inning of a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Twins. After Luke Weaver got the final out of the victory, SNY aired a picture of Weaver looking skyward with his hands in a praying position as fire shot up from the fence beyond centerfield, as if he'd just escaped some sort of sci-fi hellscape. Which, you know, may not be far from the truth.

The Mets made it two in a row the next night with a 10-8 win over the Twins…in which they blew a pair of five-run leads, allowed Minnesota to tie the game on Ryan Jeffers' grand slam in the top of the eighth and then took the lead on Bichette's three-run double in the bottom half.

Oh AND THEN Carlos Mendoza miscommunicated with Huascar Brazoban, who went out for the top of the ninth as Devin Williams jogged in from the bullpen. Brazoban got the first out, after which Williams entered and gave up a run on three hits before wriggling out of the jam. Oh and HE GOT THE WIN.

More MLB:

So yeah. The Mets needed a win of any kind in the worst way on Tuesday. And now they need a whole bunch more victories - boring or otherwise - to begin crawling out of the hole they've dug.

"I don't think it's going to be one day, good or bad, that's really going to change (things)," Holmes said. "It's just going to take do it again tomorrow and do it again the next day and the next day and stacking days on top of (each other)."

Related: Mets, Phillies, Red Sox, and Royals Debacle Raises Questions for Fans

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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 3:33 PM.

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