The Mets were on the verge of another loss as part of a historically bad start to the season.
Then Pete Alonso awakened a sleeping offense by slamming a game-tying homer to lead off the bottom of the ninth to tie the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader against Detroit after the Mets blew a lead in losing the first game of the afternoon at Citi Field.
It sparked a game-winning rally that was finished by Tyrone Taylor, who drove in Brett Baty with a one-out single after Starling Marte’s sacrifice bunt to give the Mets a 2-1 win and a split of the doubleheader.
The victory meant the Mets avoided falling to 0-6 for the first time since 1963, their second year of existence.
“We definitely needed that one,’’ Alonso said.
The win was also the first for new manager Carlos Mendoza.
“I know how hard they were trying,’’ Mendoza said. “It’s not the homestand we were anticipating, but there’s a lot of baseball left. We’ll get it going.”
The ninth-inning rally came from an offense that had been alarmingly quiet for much of the afternoon.
After getting out to a 3-0 lead in the first game, the Mets didn’t get another hit for the rest of a 6-3, 11-inning loss.
Then they followed it up by being no-hit for the first seven innings of the second game, including 5 ²/₃ innings by Detroit right-hander Matt Manning.
Harrison Bader finally looped a single into left field to lead off the bottom of the eighth and Alonso and Co. came alive in the ninth.
Now, they head on the road, where they play the Reds on Friday.
“It’s nice to get the first one, finally,’’ said Mendoza, the rookie manager who has spent nearly three decades in professional baseball. “I wish it happened earlier, but it’s baseball. … Now, we keep going, hopefully.”
Even with the win, they need to get the lineup going.
While Brandon Nimmo at least got on base multiple times in each game, he still has just one hit on the season.
The same goes for No. 2 hitter, Francisco Lindor, who only got on base thanks to getting hit by a pitch in the third inning of the first game and is 1-for-24 on the season.
But they got a terrific outing from Jose Butto in the second game.
Brought up to the major league roster as the 27th man for the doubleheader, Butto overcame some wildness in the first two innings — when he allowed a run in the second — to pitch six innings, giving some relief to an undermanned and overworked bullpen.
And Reed Garrett tossed three scoreless innings to finish it.
The much-needed win came at the start of a stretch of 15 games in 14 days.
“It’s baseball,’’ Adrian Houser said after giving up one run in five-plus innings in the opener, his first start as a Met. “You’re gonna go through it. Some teams go on a losing skid in the middle of the year. We’re just starting off on the wrong foot. We’re not playing terribly. It’s part of the journey. It’s gonna be a roller coaster. Who knows? Two weeks from now [we could have] a 10- or 11-game winning streak.”
They seemed to be in a good position to get that first win in Game 1, when they went up 3-0, sparked by a two-run Francisco Alvarez double.
But Adam Ottavino gave up a game-tying homer to Riley Greene in the eighth and the Mets squandered a chance to win the game in the bottom of the ninth, when Alvarez hit into an inning-ending double play with two on.
The Mets’ bullpen faltered in the 11th, as Michael Tonkin allowed a go-ahead RBI double to Colt Keith with one out for Detroit’s first lead of the day and then a two-run single to ex-Yankee Gio Urshela.
But all that seemed like a distant memory when Taylor’s single landed in the outfield.
“It took a while to get the first one,’’ Taylor said. “Hopefully we roll now.’’
