PHOENIX -- For the better part of half an hour in the fifth inning on Tuesday, the Mets could do no wrong.

Already leading when they came to bat against Diamondbacks starter Brandon Pfaadt, New York opened the top of the fifth with five consecutive hits, including RBI singles from Francisco Alvarez and Mark Vientos. All five of those batters wound up crossing home. All told, the Mets sent a dozen men to the plate and scored six times.

If not an outright catharsis, the rally was at least a welcome reminder that the Mets can hang with anyone. Reputationally, the Diamondbacks entered this week as hot as the triple-digit temperatures hovering around their city. Winners of six in a row, the D-backs had sent a signal to the National League that they were not just favorites to lock up a Wild Card berth, but also strong candidates to secure home-field advantage in a Wild Card Series and perhaps even challenge the Dodgers for the NL West title.

The Mets’ 8-3 win in Tuesday’s series opener at Chase Field won’t change that narrative in one night. But it did provide further evidence that the Mets can still insert themselves into the thick of the playoff race -- not just hang around the fringes of it.

"It’s amazing,” starting pitcher Sean Manaea said. “The offense has been doing an incredible job."

If not for the overwhelming success of his offense, Manaea himself would have been the star of the night. The left-hander allowed just one hit over the first six innings before cracking for a pair of homers in the seventh. Nonetheless, Manaea finished with his third double-digit strikeout game in his last six outings, producing a 4-1 record and a 2.87 ERA over that stretch.

His job was certainly made easier by what the Mets accomplished in the fifth. Three innings after Pete Alonso opened the scoring with a solo homer -- the 220th of his career, matching Mike Piazza for third most in franchise history -- the Mets commenced one of their finest rallies of the season with a Jeff McNeil leadoff double against Pfaadt. Alvarez followed with a single, as did Francisco Lindor, Vientos and Brandon Nimmo.

"Every single guy put up extremely high-quality at-bats,” Alonso said. “That was huge for us, and that was a really good way to start the series.”

By the time the rally ended, the Mets had rapped out six hits, chased Pfaadt from the game, and even received a bit of bonus offense when Jordan Montgomery hit one batter and walked another with the bases loaded.

"When you put the ball in play, good things happen,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “With two strikes, we continued to fight. We put the ball in play. We got big hits when we needed them. Balls found holes. There were a couple of 3-2 counts that we won, so it was good to see."

Now, the question becomes whether the Mets can sustain this sort of success over the final two games of a difficult series.

In some ways, the Diamondbacks are the model of what the Mets would like to achieve. Last year, Arizona snuck into the final NL Wild Card spot with an 84-win team and nearly ran the table in October, proving yet again that regular-season success correlates only loosely with playoff excellence. The D-backs returned a strong roster this year and have recently caught fire with it, winning 16 of 20 before Tuesday’s loss.

"They can beat you a lot of different ways,” Mendoza said, citing the power and speed in Arizona’s lineup. “That’s another good team. We’ve been playing a lot of good teams as of late."

This year, 84 wins probably won’t be good enough in the National League. The Braves, who are currently holding the final NL Wild Card spot, are on pace for 88 victories. But the Mets, who are on track for 85, could get there too -- so long as they continue showing the type of persistent offensive force they can be.

"We’re right there in the competition,” Mendoza said. “We battled a lot of things, and now we’re in a position where we’ve got an opportunity to go out there and try to accomplish something special."