Marte's hustle secures Mets' win in extras

PHOENIX -- Starling Marte hit a chopper to third base, quickly dropped his bat and bolted down the first-base line.

He didn’t just run fast. He reached an elite sprint speed -- 30.2 feet per second, the fastest by any Mets player tracked by Statcast this season. He had to hustle, because it was the most important 90-foot dash of Friday night’s game, and it was likely to help determine the outcome of the Mets’ opener vs. the D-backs at Chase Field.

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When Marte’s left foot hit the bag, he saw the ball still in the air out of the corner of his eye. It hadn’t yet arrived in first baseman Christian Walker’s glove. Then came the call from first-base umpire Will Little: Out.

“I knew,” Marte said. “I knew that I was safe, because I saw the ball coming in when I tagged the base.”

Marte immediately waved his arms, wanting the Mets to challenge the call. Considering it was a tied game with two outs in the 10th inning, manager Buck Showalter was going to do it either way, he explained -- what did he have to lose at that point?

Marte’s instinct had been right. The video replay showed he was safe, which meant Jeff McNeil had scored the go-ahead run by scampering home from third base on the play. New York then went on to secure a 6-5 win when Seth Lugo worked around a two-out walk for a scoreless save.

Thirteen games into his first season with the Mets, Marte is showcasing how valuable he can be to the top of their lineup. Speed is one of the 11-year veteran’s top assets, as well as his max effort.

“Marte is fast as can be, and he runs hard, and he got down the line good there,” starting pitcher David Peterson said.

Marte hit another gear on his late sprint, and he said he drew inspiration from one of his fellow outfielders -- Brandon Nimmo. Earlier in the game, Nimmo had collected a pair of hits, including a fourth-inning knock to left against the shift. Nimmo hustled and turned that into a double.

When Marte saw plays like that -- as well as when Nimmo ran hard to first on a groundout in the 10th -- he knew what he needed to do when he came to the plate and the game potentially on the line.

“When he did that, that meant I had to do it, too,” Marte said. “Because I saw the guy play like that, that’s how I have to play, too.”

It took more than Marte, though, for New York to pull out this tight victory, one that appeared to be in hand in the ninth. Arizona was down to its final out when Daulton Varsho hit a game-tying solo homer off closer Edwin Díaz, who had allowed only one run through his first six innings of the season.

The Mets’ bullpen had been terrific of late, having not allowed a run over their previous five games (a span of 17 innings). But the unit wasn’t as dominant on Friday, when Chasen Shreve and Trevor May combined to allow three runs before Díaz’s first blown save of the year.

Yet, Showalter was impressed by the mettle shown by Díaz immediately after the homer.

“You know what I like about him? He struck the next guy out,” Showalter said. “Instead of, ‘Woe is me,’ and living in pity, he got out there. I’m glad he’s ours. He’s a good one.”

Lugo later picked up his relief counterparts in an impressive 10th in which he didn’t allow the D-backs’ automatic runner to move off second base. He struck out Cooper Hummel and Ketel Marte, and after walking Matt Davidson, he got Walker to pop out to end the game.

From the hustle shown in the go-ahead rally to the bounce-back ability displayed by the bullpen late, it was another resilient early-season win for the first-place Mets.

“That’s the definition of our team. No matter where you turn, it’s next man up,” said catcher James McCann, who hit his first homer of the season in the seventh. “That’s what we pride ourselves on. If one guy doesn’t get it done today, someone else will.”

So far, it’s working. New York has won each of its first four series of 2022, and it will now have two attempts to keep that streak alive this weekend in Arizona.

It’s clear Marte and the rest of the Mets will try their hardest to get that done.