The New York Mets found themselves in quite the hole on Sunday afternoon, down 12-1 at the turn of the seventh inning to their fellow National League East brethren, the Washington Nationals.

Zack Wheeler‘s seven earned-run, seven-walk outing, along with Tim Peterson‘s five bases-on-balls and Luis Avilan‘s three earned runs transformed a good, old-fashioned rubber game into a yawner before Lazy Mary had a chance to play over the Citi Field PA system during the seventh-inning stretch.

Then, something wonderful happened. And it’s something we’ve seen the Mets do with some regularity this season — their bats came alive. It hasn’t seemed to matter if this team is down three or 10 runs; they simply never say die — especially against the Nats.

In what’s becoming somewhat of a trend this season, the Mets and Nationals have played some terrific ballgames over the course of the first week-plus of the season.

Starting with their 2-0 win over Max Scherzer on Opening Day, their offensive explosion over Stephen Strasburg in their 11-8 win on March 30, and their first loss of the season on March 31 that saw them come back from three-down in the eighth to tie the game, only to lose it in the ninth, the Mets sent a stern message to the Nats — they will not be cast aside.

After coming out flat at Thursday’s home opener, the Mets charged back on Saturday with an impressive power surge to even the three-game series, then on Sunday, down by 11 with six outs remaining, the Mets gave the die-hards who stuck out Sunday’s stinker something to cheer about in the late innings.

Brandon Nimmo‘s double seemed to shake this team from their slumber. Jeff McNeil‘s RBI single woke the crowd up. Pete Alonso and Michael Conforto parked a couple of Nats offerings in the seats and, all of a sudden, the Mets were only down three.

The comeback would fall short, but during a 162-game season, moral victories count for a whole lot. Today was one of those days to chalk up to memory.

Mets skipper Mickey Callaway spoke about his team’s resolve against a heated division rival, and how they simply can’t be counted out (quote via Tim Britton of The Athletic).

“What I’ve seen is, more than anything, […] is we’re not going to back down. Even when we’ve been playing down, we’re fighting back. We feel like we can play with [Washington], we feel like we can do anything we want.”

“I’m excited about that, they have a good lineup, they have a good team. They have some good starters, but ours are just as good. And we’re going to give them a battle every time out. Whether we’re up or down, we’re going to keep on fighting and we’re not going to back down from them.”

The next time the Mets find themselves down-and-out, they can look back on today and know, with 100 percent certainty, that there aren’t too many holes they can’t dig themselves out of.