NEW YORK _ The ball Wilmer Flores hit in the bottom of the ninth inning was caught, but it erased three hours of misery, frustration, and second guessing.
Flores hit a sacrifice fly with no outs Saturday that scored Brandon Nimmo from third and completed a comeback in what seemed destined to be a depressing loss for the Mets. Instead, Devin Mesoraco's game-tying two-run home run in the eighth, and Nimmo's leadoff double in the ninth, got the Mets back from the brink in a 5-4 win over the Diamondbacks at Citi Field.
It was Flores' second walk-off RBI of the year and the eighth of his career.
After a Jay Bruce single in the eighth, Mesoraco blasted Archie Bradley's 95-mph fastball to the seats in left field to tie the game at 4, his third home run since getting traded for Matt Harvey on May 8.
Mesoraco quickly has made a name for himself as a pitchers' catcher, a guy who studies and prepares scouting reports before every game. But his offensive contributions have been a much-needed bonus. Mesoraco now has scored six times in his seven games with five RBIs, and after his homer, he was greeted by a jubilant dugout _ one that had suffered a pretty crummy night for the prior seven innings.
There was Steven Matz snapping at the ball and barking in frustration on the mound, and Jose Reyes muttering to himself after another futile at bat. Manager Mickey Callaway glared and grumbled from the dugout when things went awry in the fourth and Asdrubal Cabrera slammed his bat to the ground after striking out in the fifth.
Indeed, on a rainy, then densely foggy evening, the Mets appeared to come undone more than once. It began with Matz, who lost his cool and then lost control in a three-run fourth. The Mets were only down 4-2 by the time he walked off the mound, but the psychological toll seemed massive, and the quiet lineup seemed less-than-equipped to handle it.
Matz served up a 92-mph fastball to the struggling Paul Goldschmidt, who hit it into the left-field stands for a leadoff homer, tying the game at 2, nullifying Michael Conforto's two-run homer in the second. With two outs, Matz walked the speedy Jarrod Dyson on a 3-and-2 pitch that missed outside. It was then that Matz _ who Callaway has said can lose his rhythm when things go awry _ snapped at the ball as it was thrown back at him, clearly upset with the call. Dyson stole second on a close play, only exacerbating the situation. Then Dyson stole third.
With Dyson dancing along the third-base line in his periphery, Matz sailed a flat changeup down the middle to catcher John Ryan Murphy, who cranked it to left for a two-run homer that gave the Diamondbacks a 4-2 lead. Matz lasted only four innings and 79 pitches. He allowed those four runs, six hits and a walk with two strikeouts.
Matz had been serviceable his previous two outings and Callaway credited his recent ability to keep his emotions in check.
"He's just been able to control the things he's thinking about in-game and brush balls off," Callaway said before the game. "Make sure he doesn't get affected by bad calls or a missed play and he's just focusing on the next pitch."
The Mets threatened in the sixth, but on Star Wars night, the offense did its best impression of the aimless Imperial Stormtroopers: They couldn't hit a thing. They loaded the bases but Reyes popped out in foul territory for the second out and Adrian Gonzalez, a career .372 hitter with the bases loaded, flied out to left.
