Starling Marte, Mets regain rhythm, momentum during winning streak

For the Mets, the hope is that Starling Marte's eighth-inning game-winning home run in the first game of Sunday's doubleheader sweep of the Cleveland Guardians is the latest sign of things beginning to go their way.

"This team's been grinding, Marte especially," reliever David Robertson said after the 5-4 win. "He needed that one, we all needed it."

For Marte, the home run to cap a 3-for-4 day at the plate, ended a long draught: It was his first extra-base hit in 27 starts since a double on April 14.

"This has been really a battle for the last few weeks where we've been working a lot in the [batting] cage," Marte said through an interpreter. "Day in and day out we're starting to get close to where we wanna be and we feel good about it."

And the veteran outfielder has seen the work pay off, as he's 11-for-31 (.355) over his last eight starts with four RBI. That comes after a 12-for-64 (.188) stretch over 17 games with just three RBI while walking only twice and striking out 17 times during 17 games.

Overall, the extra-base hit draught saw Mate's slugging percentage drop from .455 to .275. But his teammates knew his struggles wouldn't last long.

"He's been scuffling up there [at the plate] -- everybody knows it," Max Scherzer said. "But at one point in time, he's gonna break out. He's too good of a player not to. So, for us to watch him go out there and be able to hit something oppo and get a home run, a huge home run, coming from down one to go up one -- to really hit a game-winning shot, that's awesome to see. 'Cause that's the stuff that kind of gets you going."

In the nightcap, the Mets made it five straight wins -- and five straight wins by one run. But even between games, the vibes around the clubhouse were good and the Mets appear to have rediscovered their early-season swagger back.
"Everybody's jacked up because of the way we've been winning," Scherzer said. "It shows the fight that we got. We're a great team. We know that. We weren't playing our best baseball. It seems like, as of late, we've found a way to kind of click on all phases. We seem to be finding ways to win ball games now instead of lose 'em.

"So ride the wave when you got it and keep your nose in the dirt and keep looking at all the little details, because that's where you win and lose ball games."

Robertson, who coughed up the lead on a Jose Ramirez two-run home run after coming in to go for a four-out save, said there's a feeling the ship is being righted on the season.

"We're a good club and things are starting to come together for us," Robertson said. "We're a good team on paper. We all know that. We've got a lot of talent here. It's a matter of getting it done in between the lines. We started out hot and then, after that West Coast trip, couldn't put it back together. And now we're starting to get our rhythm again, and we're starting to find ways to win ball games."

Marte, who wiped away Robertson's mistake in the bottom half of the eighth, saw something familiar in the late-inning comeback.

"This team's good, this is something that we've done before. Last year it happened a lot where we would go behind ad then go ahead later in the game," he said. "The type of team that we have, we fight and we execute our plan, at the end of the day -- and that's what we've been doing."

Robertson added: "It may not be pretty, but a win is a win. So we'll take anything we can get right now. As long as the guys keep fighting and don't give up in that dugout and give us the chance to hold leads out there, we'll win games."