called up Monday<\/a> to take the place of Juan Soto, essentially to serve as an in-case-of-emergency infielder for a team shuffling a bunch of defensive pieces to mitigate Soto\u2019s absence. That\u2019s why Mendoza made sure to temper expectations early.<\/p>\nStill, Mauricio started preparing in the fifth inning for a chance that might not arrive. He stretched, he swung, he studied video of potential sparring partners from the Arizona bullpen.<\/p>\n
With the score tied 3-3 in the 10th inning, it was his time, pinch hitting for Tyrone Taylor. He was himself at the plate, which is to say he was aggressive.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could see his confidence in his first swing,\u201d starter Freddy Peralta said. \u201cWe had confidence he was going to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Down 0-2, Mauricio stayed ready for a fastball from Arizona closer Paul Sewald. He roped it over Corbin Carroll\u2019s head in right, driving in Francisco Lindor for the first walk-off RBI of his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIncredible,\u201d Mauricio said through interpreter Alan Suriel. \u201cIn baseball, there\u2019s a lot of highs and lows. The most important thing is continuing to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mauricio knows that as much as anyone. After a promising cameo with the Mets down the stretch of that disappointing 2023 season, he missed all of 2024 and the start of 2025 with a torn ACL suffered playing winter ball. He had brief stretches of success with the big club last season, only to be glued to the bench for the final six weeks of the season, the team teetering on the brink of the playoffs while also trying to preserve his minor-league option for another season. He went more than a month between starts and got all of 16 plate appearances in September.<\/p>\n
So he made the most of his first of 2026.<\/p>\n
This was not the first time the bench has come through this season for the Mets. It was not the first time it came through Tuesday. Taylor, whom Mauricio hit for, had entered as a pinch runner for Jorge Polanco, representing the tying run in the eighth after moving aggressively first to third on a one-out single to center.<\/p>\n
Even with his hottest hitter in Mark Vientos coming to the plate, Mendoza turned again to his bench to deliver that run, opting for lefty Jared Young to hit for Vientos. After the game, Mendoza\u2019s reasoning for the switch was thorough.<\/p>\n
The Diamondbacks\u2019 bullpen, while filled with eight right-handers, contained a couple who were particularly hard on right-handed hitters. One is Jonathan Lo\u00e1isiga, whom Mendoza knows well from their shared time with the Yankees.<\/p>\n
How the eighth transpired only reinforced Mendoza\u2019s feeling: Polanco\u2019s single came from the left side. Lo\u00e1isiga came from 3-0 down to strike out right-hander Luis Robert Jr. Brett Baty\u2019s single came from the left side.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat for me right there, the game is basically telling you to trust your gut,\u201d Mendoza said about going to another left-handed bat off the bench. \u201cAs hard as it is to take the bat away from Mark, it\u2019s first and third, double play in play, Lo\u00e1isiga is a big groundball pitcher, and you\u2019ve got a pretty good left-handed batter on the bench. I felt like I needed to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young ripped a pitch from Lo\u00e1isiga to right for a tying sacrifice fly. Mendoza\u2019s only lament afterward was that the ball would have left the yard on a summer day.<\/p>\n
Early this season, the Mets are 4-for-9 when pinch hitting. The rest of the league entered Tuesday hitting .141 in pinch hitting spots.<\/p>\n
\u201cCredit to players and coaches,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cThe preparation level, just understanding potential matchups and potential situations and then executing the plan and trusting it.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Tuesday highlighted one more thing: Mendoza came into this year aiming to be a better communicator<\/a>. So much of success off the bench starts with an understanding of one\u2019s role \u2014 the kind Mauricio gained Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n\u201cI was really appreciative of the conversation we had,\u201d Mauricio said of his morning meeting with Mendoza. \u201cHe was clear and transparent. I\u2019ll be ready once my name is called.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows you we\u2019re going to need everyone here,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cEveryone who walks through those doors is important.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 In a meeting Tuesday morning, Carlos Mendoza was blunt. The opportunity, he told Ronny Mauricio,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,320,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-189208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-mets","11":"tag-new-york-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}