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The Mets opened their season by silencing opposing offenses, their pitching compensating for bats that were cold in the colder months.
Recently, their offense has begun to remind of the résumés and the contracts that are stuffed into the order.
On Tuesday, they neither outpitched nor overpowered the Nationals.
Instead, they simply refused to lose.
Behind Juan Soto, Pete Alonso, a walk-off RBI single from Jeff McNeil and an excellent bullpen, the Mets overcame a two-run ditch in the eighth inning, sent the game to a 10th and stole a 5-4 series-opening victory against the Nationals in front of 38,472 at Citi Field.
The Mets (43-24) won a fourth straight and ninth in their past 11.
They won because in the bottom 10th, McNeil only needed to see one pitch from Cole Henry, lining the winning hit into right field to drive in Luisangel Acuña and jump-start a celebration around McNeil at second base.
They won because Reed Garrett — among the game’s best at stranding runners — stranded one more in the top of the inning.
The invaluable righty induced a groundout from James Wood that moved ghost-runner CJ Abrams to third and then struck out Nathaniel Lowe in perhaps the game’s biggest at-bat.
Former Yankees prospect Andrés Chaparro then flied out, and Garrett clapped walking off the field.
The Mets won because their lineup — silent for most of the night outside of an RBI bloop single from McNeil in the second inning and a third-inning solo shot from Soto — awoke in the eighth.
Against lefty Jose Ferrer, Starling Marte worked a two-out walk.
A red-hot Soto drilled a sinking liner to right that eluded a diving Robert Hassell III, who let the ball bounce behind him and had to retrieve what became an RBI double from Soto.
After one enormous offseason addition drew them closer, another piece of their winter work tied the game: Alonso crushed a shot that bounced off the left field wall to drive in Soto, though Alonso was thrown out at second.
José Buttó, José Castillo, an impressive Justin Garza making his club debut, Edwin Díaz and Garrett combined for 4 ²/₃ scoreless, one-hit innings to give the offense a chance.
Griffin Canning (four runs in 5 ¹/₃ innings) was not great in allowing a pair of home runs, but did enough to keep his team in the game.