NEW YORK _ No one could have faulted the Mets for feeling a bit sorry for themselves on Friday. News had just broken that Yoenis Cespedes wanted to end his career with the team in the visiting dugout, and possibly preferred the A's Bob Melvin to his own manager.
Steven Matz, who appeared in line for his third straight loss, was reminding them of this season's lost promise, unable to fully bounce back from the worst start of his career. And then there was the fact that they were losing to one of the worst teams in baseball.
It was, in all, a microcosm of this season _ a live action lesson in humility for these Mets. But Friday included something that the Mets haven't seen much of this year: a reprieve.
Despite a hairy eighth inning, the Mets managed to hold on in a 7-5 come-from-behind win over the A's. Michael Conforto hit two homers, Jerry Blevins' five-out save kept the Mets from the brink of oblivion, and for once, bad stuff happened to the other guys.
First, Blevins. The Mets had a four-run lead in the eighth when the tandem of Erik Goeddel and Addison Reed decided to make it interesting. Goeddel allowed an RBI single to Jed Lowrie before Reed was pegged to get the five-inning save. Instead, Reed walked Rajai Davis and allowed an RBI single to Marcus Semien to load the bases and cut the lead to two. That's when Blevins, the former Oakland pitcher, came in and got Yonder Alonso to pop out in foul territory and struck out Khris Davis swinging. He earned the save.
That was the exciting part. The bizarre part came earlier.
The A's actually had a one-run lead going into the sixth, when a series of misadventures proved that the Mets don't actually have a monopoly on bad breaks, no matter what it looks like.
With runners on first and second with one out, Lucas Duda hit a chopper toward first base that took a high, hard hop and smacked Ryon Healy in the face. Healy, who stayed down some time afterward and had to leave the game, couldn't make the play, loading the bases for T.J. Rivera. That's when things unraveled.
Rivera hit a single up the middle that squeaked into the infield. The runners on second and third, Cespedes and Asdrubal Cabrera, scored to give the Mets the lead. But with no play at the plate, the throw came into Matt Chapman at third base. Duda, who was dead to rights, tried to shimmy around Chapman, buying time for Rivera to try for second. When he was finally tagged, Chapman rushed the throw to second, throwing the ball away and allowing Rivera to score on the error, making for (an unofficial) inside-the-park home run and giving the Mets a 5-3 lead.
Conforto's two homers _ giving him 18 for the season _ were both two-run shots, tying a career high with four RBIs. His second home run, in the seventh, gave the Mets a 7-3 lead. His 459-foot shot in the third was toward Shea Bridge and briefly put the Mets up 2-1.
In all, it was exactly the kind of break the Mets needed. It was just hours before that Cespedes, speaking to a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, said that he wanted to end his career where it started, with the A's. That was less controversial than what came next, when Cespedes, in the first year of a four-year, $110 million contract, called Melvin the "best manager for me."
Though Matz certainly had an improved performance _ he was coming off that start against the Rockies, where he lasted one inning and allowed seven runs � he still wasn't peak Matz.
The first three batters he faced singled, producing a run. Matz did settle down after that, but, much like last week, he often lived too close to the meat of the plate. He allowed three runs on nine hits in five innings.
