NEW YORK _ These stories are difficult to write, mostly because nights like Friday cannot be explained. Try as we might, sports baffle with their unpredictability.
The Mets, back in the postseason race, looked dead late on Friday as they faced a three-run deficit heading to the bottom of the ninth. In a blink, inexplicably, they had the momentum.
They notched two quick hits and, suddenly, Todd Frazier represented the tying run. He blasted a game-tying, three-run home run off Nationals closer Sean Doolittle, because of course he did. That is how sports are sometimes _ inexplicable and wild.
The sequence represented the Mets' season: Down and out for months, then alive because of a two-week hot stretch.
The Mets kept threatening, and eventually, Michael Conforto hit one over the right fielder's head. Again, Citi Field exploded as the winning run scored. The Mets scored the final four runs to steal a 7-6 victory over a division rival.
The crowd of 39,602 went wild throughout the ninth. These fans finally have something for which to hope and root. There is belief.
For three hours, emotions swung from one side to the other as the Nationals and Mets battled in what felt like a postseason atmosphere. New York, which entered having won 13 of its last 14, put itself within half a game of the wild card heading into this series.
Friday night had everything.
The two teams traded three-run innings. Marcus Stroman executed a masterful escape in the top of the sixth, then Stephen Strasburg matched it in the bottom half.
When Anthony Rendon untied the game with a two-run home run in the seventh, the energy instantly dropped. The air came out of the balloon.
But these Mets were not dead. This season, they've shown they never are.
