DENVER — Just when another night of anguish with RISP could have spelled R.I.P for the Mets, a wounded star came to the rescue.
Francisco Lindor cast aside the team’s ugly performance with runners in scoring position by delivering a pinch-hit, two-run double in the ninth inning that provided the margin of victory in a 4-2 win over the Rockies at Coors Field on Friday night.
Lindor, who missed a second straight start after suffering a broken right pinky toe in Los Angeles, emerged from the dugout with two outs in the ninth and smashed a shot to right field that brought in Juan Soto and Pete Alonso.
“I just wanted to play,” Lindor said after the Mets won for the sixth time in eight games and survived a 2-for-15 performance with runners in scoring position. “It would have been nice if I didn’t play because that would have meant the [team] was up. But it was cool that I got to play and feel like part of the team.”
Manager Carlos Mendoza said he knew after watching Lindor take swings in the batting cage before the game that the Mets had a “bullet” for the late innings if needed.
And before the ninth inning started, Mendoza told Lindor to be ready if Tyrone Taylor’s spot in the batting order arose.
Soto singled with one out to begin the go-ahead rally, and Alonso, who had delivered a big hit earlier, walked before Jeff McNeil was retired.
With Taylor due up, Lindor got his chance and jumped on the second pitch he saw from Zach Agnos.
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“[Lindor] is a special player, man,” Mendoza said. “A special talent — we’re watching greatness here. The All-Star voting started a couple of days ago. Here he is.”
Lindor named individually the members of the team’s training staff and credited them for helping him be prepared physically for the at-bat — Luisangel Acuña entered as a pinch-runner for him after the go-ahead double.
“They prepped me the right way,” Lindor said, referring to the training staff. “They did everything in their power to get me on the field.”
Will Lindor return to the starting lineup Saturday?
“I would like to start,” he said. “But it’s going to be up to the trainers and Mendy, and we have all got to make a decision together.”
The Mets caught a break in the eighth when Jordan Beck stopped at third base on Thairo Estrada’s double off Ryne Stanek that Soto had difficulty fielding in right field.
After a walk to Hunter Goodman loaded the bases with nobody out, Ryan McMahon hit a line drive to Brett Baty, who tagged out Beck retreating to third. Stanek struck out Brenton Doyle to escape the inning.
The Rockies had tied the game an inning earlier on Mickey Moniak’s RBI single against Huascar Brazobán.
Alonso’s two-run double in the seventh provided a 2-1 lead after the Mets went hitless in their first eight at-bats of the game with runners in scoring position.
It was just the latest big hit for Alonso, who has driven in 14 runs in his last six games.
Kodai Senga threw a career-high 109 pitches and got the Mets through the sixth with only one run allowed.
The right-hander allowed five hits and struck out six with two walks and lowered his ERA to 1.59.
Senga retired seven straight batters to begin the game before Moniak homered in the third inning.
It was a third straight start in which Senga allowed a homer after he surrendered only one in his first nine outings this season.
Moniak jumped on a first-pitch sweeper and lined it into the right field seats.
Senga avoided further trouble by getting Estrada to hit into an inning-ending double play after Tyler Freeman doubled and Jordan Beck walked.
The Mets won a replay challenge in the fifth that removed a Colorado run from the scoreboard.
Ryan Ritter was ruled out on replay at the plate on Francisco Alvarez’s tag after Moniak hit a grounder to Alonso.
Ritter tripled leading off the inning for his first major league hit.
Senga walked Freeman later in the inning to put runners on first and second before retiring Beck to escape.
Starling Marte and Soto each singled in the seventh before Alonso delivered with a two-run double that gave the Mets a 2-1 lead.
But neither McNeil nor Taylor could bring in Alonso from second base, leaving the Mets 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position to that point.
Moniak’s RBI single in the seventh tied it 2-2 against Brazobán after pinch-hitter Sam Hilliard launched a triple off the right-hander that nearly cleared the right-field fence.