TORONTO — The Mets lost a narrow lead in the seventh inning Monday night, but played the role of gracious guests and let a bad team hand them the game.
Hey, it counts.
Even with the lineup lackluster for a second straight day, the Mets capitalized on their opponent’s blooper reel of eighth-inning miscues and survived for a 3-2 victory over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
A day after their nine-game winning streak was snapped, the Mets leveraged Jesse Winker’s pinch-hit walk and Francisco Alvarez’s infield single into the tying and go-ahead runs in the eighth.
The Mets (79-65) moved one game ahead of Atlanta in the race for the NL’s third wild card.
After Danny Young allowed two runs in the seventh to place the Mets in a 2-1 hole, Winker walked and Alvarez hit a slow grounder that third baseman Ernie Clement threw away to put runners on the corners.
Pinch runner Tyrone Taylor scored the tying run on a wild pitch with the bases loaded and catcher Brian Serven’s passed ball allowed pinch runner Eddy Alvarez to score the go-ahead run.
Tylor Megill continued a recent stretch of dominance by Mets starting pitchers by retiring the last 16 batters he faced, after he loaded the bases in the first inning without surrendering a run.
Overall, Megill allowed one hit over six shutout innings in which he walked two and matched a season-high with nine strikeouts.
It was the second time this season the right-hander pitched at least six innings scoreless. On May 28 he fired seven shutout innings against the Dodgers in which he also struck out nine.
Megill walked Will Wagner to load the bases in the first but retired Alejandro Kirk on a comebacker to conclude the inning.
The Blue Jays had mounted a two-out threat that also included a walk to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Spencer Horwitz’s double.
J.D. Martinez — moved to sixth in the lineup behind Jose Iglesias — stroked an RBI single in the fourth that gave the Mets a 1-0 lead.
Pete Alonso drew a two-out walk to start the rally and Iglesias was plunked before Martinez delivered for his 69th RBI this season.
Alvarez walked in the fifth, but was thrown out attempting to steal second base to conclude the inning. Iglesias got plunked leading off the seventh, but was erased on Starling Marte’s double-play grounder to end the inning.
Young plunked Wagner to start the Blue Jays’ rally in the seventh. After Kirk singled, Jose Butto allowed a single to Clement that loaded the bases.
Butto drilled Leo Jimenez to force in Toronto’s first run and Nathan Lukes’ sacrifice fly put the Mets in a 2-1 hole.