Heroics by Mazeika, Pillar and Villar lead Mets from Behind vs. O's

 METS 3 - ORIOLES 2 

This was huge. Sure the Mets were playing the lowly Baltimore Orioles, but after having won five in a row coming into play on Tuesday, the Mets found themselves trailing 2-1 in the late stages, with the prospect of facing ex-Met Matt Harvey tomorrow afternoon with the chance to sweep his old team. 

That would have been a nightmare no Mets fan wanted apart of. 

And neither did the Mets, who staged an amazing ninth inning rally to stun the Orioles 3-2, and capture their sixth straight victory to improve to 17-13. 

The rally started in the bottom of the ninth when Kevin Pillar lifted the first pitch he saw from Ceaser Valdez and narrowly missed a game-tying solo homer. Pillar would hang in their and work what would turn out to be an eight pitch at bat, before singling through the hole at third. 

Jonathan Villar would follow with a single of his own toward second, and suddenly the Mets had the game tying and winning runs aboard with nobody out.  Catcher James McCann was asked to bunt, but failed to put down a proper bunt attempt, forcing manager Luis Rojas to ask his embattled catcher to swing away, and he proceeded to strike out to a loud chorus of boos. 

Dom Smith quickly picked up McCann when he lifted a Valdez pitch into the gap in right-center, scoring Pillar to tie the game at two. Villar would advance to third on a throwing error by Ramon Urias. 

Finally it was up to Patrick Mazeika. Four days earlier, Mazeika was the hero in the Mets 5-4 walk-off win over Arizona that was clouded by the controversial Francisco Lindor-Jeff McNeil dugout spat. 

This time it was all about Mazeika as he found a way to squib a pitch toward first baseman Trey Mancini, who tried to throw out Villar charging toward home. The throw was a tad late as Villar just got underneath the swipe tag by catcher Pedro Severino to win it for the Mets. 

And, yes, of course the jersey came flying off Mazeika for the second time in four days. 

Marcus Stroman got the start for New York, allowing only a run on four hits over 6.1 innings of work. He was bested for a short time by Orioles starter John Means, who held the Mets scoreless on six hits over six innings; a stellar effort for Means who tossed the first Orioles no-hitter since 1969 just a week ago. 

Tomorrow afternoon its Harvey Day at Citi Field, as the Mets look to get even against their former ace.