NEW YORK — A little more than two weeks ago, the Mets still profiled as one of the most puzzling offenses in baseball. The track records of their individual players — Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, Pete Alonso, et al — suggested that their lineup should be elite. Their results suggested otherwise.
From Opening Day through Aug. 11, the Mets ranked 17th in the Majors in runs scored — hardly what they envisioned when they doled out more than $1.4 billion in total contract dollars to the position players on their roster. Team officials puzzled over it. Hitting coaches logged hours in the cage. Nothing seemed capable of snapping New York out of its mediocrity.
Then … the situation simply changed. How, the Mets don’t know. Why, the Mets don’t know. But since Aug. 12, this has been the best offense in baseball. With a 6-5 walk-off win over the Phillies on Tuesday night added to the ledger, New York has scored 99 runs over that stretch — an average of 7.1 per game. That leads the Majors by a wide margin. It also marked the Mets’ ninth straight win over the Phillies at Citi Field, including the postseason.
The last of those runs scored in the bottom of the ninth inning at Citi Field, where Starling Marte, Alonso and Brett Baty loaded the bases on consecutive singles off Phillies closer Jhoan Duran. Brandon Nimmo followed with a single to left-center field to end it.
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