NEW YORK _ Amed Rosario's final sprint symbolized the Mets' performance on Tuesday.
With two outs and the winning run on third in the bottom of the ninth, he bounced one to short. It looked like a routine play, but he beat the throw to first and the Mets walked it off, 6-5.
This marked the second walk-off win for the Mets this season.
The Mets had to rally all night. They've often talked about resiliency _ even in losses _ and they showed it on Tuesday.
To tie the game in the eighth inning, Pete Alonso launched his 16th home run of the season. It also broke the Mets rookie record for home runs before the All-Star break, previously held by Ron Swoboda in 1965.
Alonso did it in 27 games.
He has also proven to be clutch. Thirteen of his homers have come in the sixth inning or later, and 11 have come in the seventh or later.
He took Jeurys Familia and Daniel Zamora off the hook, too (mostly Familia). Before Alonso's bomb, the Mets bullpen had just blown a lead provided by J.D. Davis.
Davis clobbered a pinch-hit, three-run home run that turned a two-run deficit into a one-run lead in the bottom of the seventh inning. He crossed home plate, jumped to high-five Wilson Ramos and ran to the dugout, where the Mets mobbed him.
The Citi Field roars soon turned to silence, then boos.
A half-inning after the Davis home run, Familia allowed a single and Trea Turner tied the game with a double. Turner's hit rolled hard to the left-field wall and bounced off in such a way that it fooled Davis, who has only played the position nine times. The extra time he spent chasing the ball allowed the run to score.
Familia exited the game and the boo birds greeted him as he approached the dugout. Familia, who returned from the injured list on May 15, also allowed a run on Monday.
Daniel Zamora entered the game and Juan Soto smoked the first pitch to drive in another run. The Nationals had the lead again.
Then, Alonso changed that.
Before the late madness, this game was rather calm.
In the seventh, Washington's Brian Dozier stepped up to the plate 0-for-his-last 37 against the Mets, including 0 for 27 this season. He changed all of that when he connected with Zack Wheeler's slider and sent it into the stands to give the Nationals a two-run lead.
It could have doomed the Mets, but only because it looked as if they were sleepwalking again. They have little margin for error right now, so one hung slider could have sealed a loss.
Before that, he was solid. He found his way out of trouble, most notably in the sixth.
With the go-ahead run at second and Anthony Rendon up to bat, Wheeler got an inning-ending flyout.
The Mets only collected four hits against Washington's Erick Fedde, who allowed just one run over five innings in his first start of the season. He worked with an early lead after Soto blasted a solo home run to lead off the second inning.
The Mets tied it in the bottom of the fifth inning when Jeff McNeil hit a hard grounder that went off the diving Brian Dozier's glove. The ball bounced into shallow center field, which allowed Juan Lagares to score from second.
