Mets find new heroes every day in statement homestand with Starling Marte the latest to play the part
Starling Marte #6 of the Mets celebrates his tenth inning game-winning hit against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citi Field on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The fact that Starling Marte’s shattered bat was responsible for delivering the deciding 10th-inning blow Wednesday in the Mets’ 4-3 victory gave the Phillies the illusion that little separated the two NL East rivals this week.
Marte’s bloop RBI single registered an exit velocity of 70.2 mph. The ball traveled 192 feet, just far enough to allow Pete Alonso — hustling around from second base — to score with a belly-flop slide as the matinee crowd of 36,863 erupted in celebration.
To the Phillies, it was an unlucky bounce, a bad break.
“Marte didn’t hit the ball hard,” manager Rob Thomson said afterward. “That’s the randomness of the game.”
Nice try, Rob. But there is nothing random about these Mets, whose three-game sweep of the Phillies Wednesday now puts them at 12-1 at Citi this season, the best home start in franchise history.
That’s because Carlos Mendoza & Co. leave nothing to chance. And don’t let the $325 million payroll fool you. These ultra-resourceful Mets are a grinding, squeezing, soul-taking machine that doesn’t let up until the final out, with the score usually in their favor, as their MLB-best 18-7 record would attest.
The Phillies better take notice, too. Forget about it being late April. The first two games of this early NL East showdown weren’t even that close, aside from Edwin Diaz getting sucker-punched by Bryson Stott’s three-run homer during what should have been mop-up time in Monday’s series opener.
And this sweep wasn’t some isolated incident. More a continuation of last October’s smackdown, when the wild-card Mets needed only four games to bounce the favored Phillies in the Division Series, punctuated by Francisco Lindor’s grand slam that brought the house down in Flushing. This mojo feels familiar for a reason.
“I’ve said it right off the rip in spring,” said Alonso, whose one-out double tied the score Wednesday in the 10th inning. “This is a really tight-knit group because there’s so many guys here from the year before — we have experience together, we have continuity. And then the guys we added, not just talent-wise but personality-wise, they kind of gelled right in. It’s like we’ve been playing together for years.”
The Mets have legit star power, obviously. Francisco Lindor batted .452 (14-for-31) with four homers and eight RBIs during the perfect 7-0 homestand and Alonso (two doubles, triple, homer, 4 RBIs) shook off an 0-for-4 before putting on his hero’s cape for the 10th. But in a series where Juan Soto, their $765 million No. 2 hitter, looked like a better bet to win a Gold Glove than a Silver Slugger — he cut down the go-ahead run at the plate with a great throw on Max Kepler’s two-out single in the eighth inning — this wasn’t just about the marquee names.
Bottom line, the Phillies got pantsed by Tylor Megill (10 Ks) and Griffin Canning, then essentially held down by David Peterson into the sixth inning Wednesday. The Mets played superior defense, came up with more timely hits, leaned on a reliable relief corps and basically outclassed the Phillies for three days to the gleeful roar of near-capacity crowds at Citi.
“We’re finding ways to win,” Brandon Nimmo said. “I still don’t think we’ve played our best baseball. There’s a lot of guys, me included, that just aren’t clicking right now. But we’re finding some way to contribute. It doesn’t have to look pretty. Just find a way to win.”
During the series finale, which the Phillies finally made competitive, it was the Mets who ultimately refused to go down, despite losing an early 2-0 lead — courtesy of Brett Baty’s 425-foot, second-deck homer off old friend Zack Wheeler — and later watching Diaz suddenly exit midway through the 10th inning with a left hip cramp.
Diaz, asked to pitch a second inning for the first time this season, gave up the go-ahead single to Nick Castellanos and then stepped off the rubber three times with J.T. Realmuto at the plate, gesturing towards the dugout for help. For once, it looked like the Mets were falling into a hole they couldn’t climb out of — not to mention having to deal with an injury to their $102 million closer.
Surely the Phillies would capitalize, right? Mendoza’s only option was to call for the overworked Max Kranick — who ran out of gas two days earlier — in what amounted to a Hail Mary for the emergency situation. But with the game on the verge of slipping away, Kranick got the final two outs to leave the bases loaded, and the Mets had all they needed — one more chance.
“Today is a perfect example of a lot of winning plays,” Mendoza said. “There’s a lot of good things happening. There’s a lot to like about the way the guys are playing.”
And of course it came down to Marte, one of the last guys the Phillies were worried about when they arrived in Flushing this week. Marte mostly rides the bench now as a part-time DH, but like every single one of these Mets, he can be a hero when called upon. On Wednesday, it was his turn.
“We’re playing a great brand of baseball right now,” Marte said through an interpreter. “Everybody’s focused, and we’re all doing the necessary things to win games.”
As the Mets’ bench emptied, and Marte was mobbed at second base, the dejected Phillies headed for the exit, losers again at Citi Field. Things are different in the NL East now, and the Mets are in first place for a reason. There’s nothing random about that.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
