While it was certainly a team effort, the collective of Mets’ rookies contributed a huge part to the club’s 9-4 win over the Tigers in the finale of their three game set this afternoon at Citi Field. The team worked through first inning trouble to come out on top for their third straight comeback victory over Detroit.
Nolan McLean started the game off with a strikeout of Kevin McGonigle on a curveball that hung up on the zone a little too much. That lack of sharpness, despite the result, would be
a bit of an omen for his day. A walk to Cole Keith and a single to Riley Greene put two on and, after a pop out by Dillon Dingler, Gage Workman cranked a three-run home run to put the Tigers up 3-0.
But unlike just about every stretch of the 2026 season thus far, the A.J. Ewing-era Mets feel like they’ve got some fight in them, and as they’ve done the last two nights, they came back.
Ewing was the sparkplug, leading off the third inning with a solo home run against Keiber Montero to cut the lead to just two. Montero and McLean both worked around some baserunners early, with just the long ball affecting the score early on.
The long ball would tie the game, too, when MJ Melendez walked, followed by Brett Baty hitting a two-run shot off the top of the fence in left-center in the fourth. Montero would start the fifth, but a Carson Benge single and stolen base would lead to a call to the bullpen ahead of Juan Soto. Left-hander Tyler Holton would be first out of the Tigers’ relief corps, and instantly gave up an RBI single, putting the Mets ahead for the first time all day.
Next up was Mark Vientos, who turned on a Holton meatball and deposited it over the Great Wall of Flushing to put the Mets up 6-3.
As noted earlier, McLean did not have his best stuff today, but seemingly was able to get past every obstacle after that initial home run. In the fourth, Workman doubled to lead off the inning, but some poor baserunning on a single by Zach McKinstry saw Workman thrown out at third by Melendez, a call confirmed by replay. One batter later, McLean got an inning-ending double play off the bat of Spencer Torkelson. That inning, which saw two hits, was wrapped up on exactly four pitches thrown: two pitches to Workman, one to McKinstry, one to Torkelson.
In the fifth, Wenceel Pérez led off the inning with a single, but was picked off by McLean on a replay-assisted call. And so even though he only had one one-two-three inning and wasn’t throwing his best stuff, McLean showed up and fought his way through.
McLean would come out for the seventh and promptly hit Torkelson. But, as he did all game, he bucked up and fought through, ending the game exactly as he started it: striking out McGonigle. It’s very possible that the game was bookended by the National League Rookie of the Year striking out his American League counterpart. Seven innings, six hits, seven strikeouts, three walks, one hit batsman.
The rest of the team showed up, too. In the bottom of the sixth, the Mets added to their lead when a Marcus Semien walk, an Ewing single, and a safety squeeze by Hayden Senger led to the seventh run of the game against Enmanuel De Jesus.
Juan Soto led off the seventh with a solo home run off of Brenan Hanifee to put the Mets up by 5. Tobias Myers pitched the eighth for the Mets and gave up a solo home run to Dingler. However, Semien hit the foul pole on the first pitch he saw from Ricky Vanasco in the bottom of the inning to make it 9-4.
Craig Kimbrel pitched an uneventful ninth for the Mets to secure the win and the sweep. The Mets have now won three of their last four series and finally looked like a competitive team, even though it was against a team that is struggling mightily.
The Mets hit five home runs, the rookie combo of Benge and Ewing each collected two hits, and aside from Bo Bichette, every starter contributed a hit or an RBI to the game.
This was only the third time in Mets’ history that the Mets came back from multiple runs down to win each game in a series (against the Giants in 1969 and against the Phillies in 2012). This was a fun three games.
The Citi Field portion of the Subway Series kicks off tomorrow night with a hell of a pitching duel when Clay Holmes faces off against Cam Schlittler.
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