The Mets ended a 12-game losing streak Wednesday night with a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Twins at Citi Field, getting back to the kind of baseball Carlos Mendoza said his club had to keep expecting even in the middle of a brutal slide. Juan Soto returned from a calf injury, Mark Vientos delivered the go-ahead RBI single in the eighth and the Mets finally walked off the field with a win after losing 12 straight.
Clay Holmes gave them a chance to do it, pitching seven strong innings and allowing two runs while the Mets kept answering a game that swung both ways. They led 1-0 and 2-1 before losing those advantages, then reclaimed the lead for good when Vientos singled in the eighth and Brett Baty scored after entering when Francisco Lindor left just before the fifth inning with a calf injury.
For Mendoza, the victory was as much about relief as it was about the standings. He said it was nice to get that one and focus again on baseball rather than the losing streak, and he praised Vientos for coming through. Tyrone Taylor, asked about the mood after the skid, offered only a quick, emphatic “Yeah!”
The win mattered because the Mets had not won since April 7, and the 12-game slide was their longest since 2002 and their worst April stretch since 1962. No team in MLB history has lost 12 straight and made the playoffs, a stark backdrop for a club that entered the night at 8-16 and with owner Steve Cohen having set the playoffs as the baseline goal in spring training. Without Soto in the lineup for 15 games, the Mets scored 40 runs over that stretch, which made his return especially important as he came back Wednesday and is scheduled to play left field Thursday.
The game also carried a catch that the standings alone cannot hide. The Mets snapped the skid, but they did it while Lindor went down with another calf issue, and Luke Weaver had to cover the final four outs because Devin Williams was unavailable after pitching two of the last three days. The win was a break from the collapse, not proof that everything is fixed.