Mets beat Pirates on Luis Robert Jr.'s walk-off home run in 11th inning
Centerfielder Luis Robert Jr. is greeted at home plate after his walk-off three-run home run led the Mets past the Pirates in the 11th inning on Saturday at Citi Field. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Last year, the Mets were 0-70 when trailing after the eighth inning or later — a statistic almost astonishing in its improbability. There were no lucky breaks, no late-game heroics, no relievers having an extra-bad day.
And no Luis Robert Jr.
By Game 2 of 2026, the Mets notched their first late-inning comeback of the year.
Robert, acquired this offseason from the White Sox for Luisangel Acuna and a minor-league pitcher, battled swirling winds, low temperatures and the Mets’ horrific track record Saturday evening, rocketing Hunter Barco’s low slider and mailing it to the seats in left- center as the Mets came from behind twice to win, 4-2, in 11 innings at Citi Field. The three-run homer was the second walk-off of Robert’s career.
After, there was only a giddy sort of awe.
“It’s unbelievable,” starter David Peterson said. “I faced him a lot in spring and I was getting real tired of facing him, so it was nice to see [him do that] from the dugout.”
Added manager Carlos Mendoza: “With the conditions today, with the way the wind was blowing, especially from leftfield, to just be able to leave the yard like that in that situation, it goes to show you that this guy is special.”
It also turned an offensively aggravating afternoon into a celebratory night. The Mets were 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position and left nine on base, and though they grinded, they also displayed some uncompetitive at-bats late in the game.
But there was Robert, a free swinger who spent the offseason working on his pitch selection, and the player ahead of him in the lineup, Jorge Polanco, took three walks, allowing the slugger to see more and more pitches.
“We created traffic,” Mendoza said. “We got guys in scoring position. I thought we expanded [the zone] a little today to be honest with you, but it’s going to happen . . . It’s a deep lineup and it’s a good feeling.”
The first Mets comeback happened in the 10th, after the Pirates finally broke open the scoring on Nick Gonzales’ one-out RBI single off Luis Garcia.
The Mets answered, but stranded the bases loaded. With runners on first and second, Mark Vientos singled sharply through the left side to load the bases. That brought up Luis Torrens, who lined a fastball the other way to tie the score at 1.
The Mets made the next two outs at home — the first on Francisco Lindor’s soft grounder to second and the next on Juan Soto’s swinging bunt. Bo Bichette flied out to right to end it.
The Pirates went back up in the 11th when, with Jake Mangum on third and two outs, Bryan Reynolds hit a slow grounder that looked like it was veering foul down the third-base line but died on the grass between reliever Richard Lovelady and Bichette to score the run.
“I couldn’t believe that stayed fair,” Mendoza said. “None of them had a chance there.”
That one wasn’t on Bichette, but it was a bit of a concerning defensive day for the converted shortstop (Polanco wasn’t faring a whole lot better at first).
Though Bichette made a nifty play in the third, backhanding an in-between hop and rocketing it to first for the out, he committed an error to lead off the fourth. Bichette seemed caught in between charging a grounder and staying back on it, and eventually threw a ball far wide to Polanco, who made the grab but couldn’t apply the tag. In the sixth, Polanco struggled against a tough hop, allowing Gonzales to reach on an infield hit.
The Pirates may not have scored on the miscues, but it did cost Peterson plenty of extra pitches, with the lefty departing after laboring through 5 1⁄3 innings. He allowed no runs and six hits, with two walks and three strikeouts, over 76 pitches.
Polanco was responsible for some errant flips, leading to some gymnastics by both Peterson and Luke Weaver, who had to tumble and stretch toward the bag to get the second out of the seventh.
But whatever the challenges, this was yet another indicator that last year was behind them, Mendoza said.
“It’s a different group,” he said. “It was a weird year when we were talking about coming from behind. You just continue to feel good about your chances. We got down and you saw what was coming [up next to the plate for the Mets], and we got down again and there’s no panic. We continued to control the strike zone when we needed to, just kind of continued to put together some tough at-bats. It was good to get that one out of the way.”
So the Mets are now 1-for-their-last-71 after trailing after the eighth inning. But if they have their way, soon, it’ll be time to stop counting.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
