


A day after the Mets came out on the short end of an important play at the plate, Starling Marte and Omar Narvaez made sure the team came out on top Thursday.
With the memory of Pete Alonso being called out to end Wednesday’s loss to the Cubs still fresh at Citi Field, Marte threw out a runner at the plate in consecutive innings to help the Mets come away with a 7-6, 11-inning win over Chicago.
Both were in extra innings, as the Mets came back from a four-run deficit.
“You couldn’t hit it to a better guy,’’ Narvaez said of Marte. “He has the best arm in the outfield.”
The first play came in the top of the 10th, as Patrick Wisdom hit a fly ball to right field with one out and Christopher Morel at third.
Marte fired home and threw it a bit up the third-base line.
But Narvaez got there and made a terrific scoop of a short hop before applying the tag on Morel.
Narvaez also made sure to not block the plate, since that was a major point of contention for the Mets, who believed Cubs catcher Miguel Amaya did so on Wednesday.
“I didn’t want to be that guy,’’ Narvaez said. “I make sure I’m in front of the plate.”

Incredibly, a similar play unfolded in the 11th, this time with Danny Young on the mound in his Mets debut.
The lefty had already given up a go-ahead double to Nick Madrigal to start the inning before Madrigal tried to score on Mike Tauchman’s two-out single to right.
Marte again threw straight home and the throw beat Madrigal, but home-plate umpire Chad Fairchild ruled that Narvaez missed Madrigal with his swipe tag and Madrigal missed the plate with his slide.
Narvaez managed to get the tag on Madrigal before he got back to the plate to keep it a one-run game, which allowed Francisco Lindor’s two-run double to win it in the bottom of the inning.
Asked which throw he took more pride in, Marte said through an interpreter, “The second one. We were already down one and if they had scored, they’d be up two. That was the throw that saved the game and gave us a chance to win.”
Young, who picked up his first MLB victory, agreed.
“The defense bailed me out,” Young said. “Marte bailed me out. [Narvaez] made a nice tag. Just kind of lucky it worked out that way.”
The Mets and Carlos Mendoza will take it.
“Unbelievable,’’ Mendoza said. “Two great plays. … It’s baseball. It’s crazy. We were talking about [Wednesday’s play] and before you know it, we have two plays at the plate.”
And more importantly, a win.