Khalil Lee turned all his whiffs into wows with one swing of the bat.
After the Mets tried every which way to lose Friday’s game to the Marlins — from a veteran’s inexplicable baserunning blunder to a normally dominant bullpen’s rare mistake they discovered the unlikeliest way of all to win it.
Jake Hager and Lee both recorded their first career MLB hits during a three-run 12th-inning rally, and the depleted Mets survived a would-be new injury designation — gut punch — with a 6-5 win in Miami. For Lee, the No. 7-ranked prospect in the organization, a tie-breaking double ended an MLB-record streak of eight strikeouts in his first eight career at-bats.
“This is about the best scenario that you could draw up,” Lee said. “Coming in, in a big situation, team counting on me to pull through, all the lights shining.”
As an unthinkable 16 Mets have gone on the injury list, the running joke is that Triple-A Syracuse moved its entire lineup to the major leagues. Well, three of those Syracuse alums earned their MLB stripes in one inning. Johneshwy Fargas followed Hager’s single and Lee’s double with a sinking liner that the diving right fielder Adam Duvall played into a two-run triple.