Apparently, what the New York Mets really needed to give their lost season a jolt was to have all expectations erased at the MLB trade deadline.
Francisco Lindor’s single to right field drove in pinch-runner Cristian Pache to complete a two-run rally and give the Mets a 5-4 walk-off win over the Washington Nationals on Saturday.
Down 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth, Brett Baty drew a leadoff walk on five pitches from Nationals reliever Yovanny Cruz. Jorge Polanco followed with a single on a hanging slider in the middle of the strike zone and Pache pinch-ran for him.
Baty came around to score on a double from Francisco Alvarez, pouncing on another slider Cruz left in the middle of the zone and tying the score at 4-4. Cruz recovered to strike out A.J. Ewing after falling behind on a three-ball, no-strike count, getting his slider to do its thing by darting lower in the strike zone.
Francisco Lindor walks it off for the Mets! pic.twitter.com/0wStWIKj3B
— MLB (@MLB) August 15, 2026
But with Dylan Crews playing shallow in hopes of throwing out Pache at home plate, Lindor lifted a low slider over the right fielder’s head to score the game-winning run.
Jared Young’s bases-loaded single in the first inning gave the Mets a 2-0 lead against Washington opener Brad Lord. The Nationals got a solo home run from Andrés Chaparro in the fourth and a 3-run shot from Brady House in the sixth to take a 4-2 lead.Carson Benge followed with a home run to close the Mets’ deficit to 4-3.
The Mets have won eight of 11 games since the Aug. 3 MLB trade deadline when the front office dealt away eight players. Yet it’s far too late in the season to make a move in the NL East or wild-card standings. Even with this recent success, the Mets are buried in last place at 55-69, 19 games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves and 4.5 games back from the Nats for fourth place.
Meanwhile, the Nationals have lost four of their past five since a three-game sweep over the Cincinnati Reds. That has dropped Washington to 60-65 and six games back from the NL’s third wild-card playoff spot with six teams ahead of them in the standings.