For the better part of three and 1/2 hours, the frustration level suffered by Mets fans was enormous. It was caused by equal parts terrific defense by the Colorado Rockies (66-87), poor situational hitting by the Mets, a head-scratching decision by Mickey Callaway in the sixth and some poor judgment displayed by several Mets. But then the top of the ninth came around with New York trailing 4-3.

The resilient New York Mets scored four in the inning to lead them to an improbable 7-4 win (box score). The Mets are now 3.5 games behind the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers for the second wild-card spot pending Wednesday night’s results. The Cubs will host Cincinnati, the Brewers will host San Diego and the Phillies are in Atlanta. St. Louis defeated Washington, 5-1, to reduce the Nationals’ lead to only one game for the first wild card.

Pete Alonso swatted his 49th home run to tie him with Mark McGwire for the second-most homers hit by a rookie in MLB history. Alonso also tied a club record for most extra-base hits. The Mets as a team broke their franchise record for home runs in a season.

Noah Syndergaard started for the Mets (79-73) and gave up four earned runs for the third straight outing. It seemed to make little difference he had Rene Rivera catching for him.

The Mets take two out of three from the Rockies and will have a day off before they begin their final road series of the year against the Cincinnati Reds on Friday.

Offense

The Mets managed 10 hits against the Rockies on Wednesday.

New York was facing Jeff Hoffman who, in six life-time appearances against the Mets, has a bloated 8.66 ERA. The Mets wasted little time against Hoffman as in the very first inning, scored to take a 1-0 lead. The second batter of the game, Jeff McNeil, blasted a home run to right to give the Mets the early lead. It was the 22nd four-bagger of the year for McNeil.

The Mets threatened in the third, loading the bases after two were out. After Brandon Nimmo and McNeil singles, Pete Alonso was hit by a pitch for the 21st time this year. It was the 88th time a Met has been plunked this year to lead the NL. Robinson Cano was up next and on the first pitch, scolded a grounder toward the hole that Ryan McMahon made a fine play to get to and flipped to Hoffman for the third out.

In the fourth, shortstop Trevor Story, who has had a fine series defensively, made two excellent plays to keep the Mets off the board. He went behind the second base bag to flag down a grounder by the slumping Michael Conforto, then robbed Amed Rosario on a line drive that Story caught at the apex of his leap to retire Rosario.

Another fine defensive play by the Rockies, this one by second baseman Garrett Hampson on a sharp grounder off the bat of Syndergaard, prevented the Mets from doing any damage in the fifth.

In the sixth, more history was made by Mets phenom Pete Alonso. He blasted his 49th home run of the season to tie Mark McGwire for second-most home runs by a rookie in MLB history. He is only three homers behind Aaron Judge for the all-time record. The tape measure shot was the Mets 225th home run of the year, breaking the mark of 224 set in 2017. Alonso’s 80th extra base-hit tied the team record shared by Carlos Beltran (2006) and Howard Johnson (1989). The rookie-of-the-year candidate has been remarkable.

But the Mets could have scored more in the sixth, but left the bases loaded. Rosario popped-out with the bags juiced with one out and then light-hitting catcher Rene Rivera grounded out. There was considerable talk as to why Rivera was not pinch-hit for in that spot especially since the Mets have three catchers on their roster. The fact that the Rockies would score in the bottom of the inning made matters worse.

Brandon Nimmo singled in the seventh for his second hit of the game, but was doubled off first on an outfield fly by Jeff McNeil. The Mets were still trailing 4-2 at this point of the game.

The Mets scored an unearned run in the eighth to make the score 4-3. Alonso led-off with a single, his third straight multi-hit game. Frazier followed with a walk. Sam Haggerty came in to run for Frazier. After a pass ball by catcher Dom Nunez moved the runners to second and third, Conforto rolled a grounder to Nolan Arenado. The gold-glover decided to go to first allowing Alonso to score to cut the Rockies lead. Rosario struck out to end the frame.

In what might of been the most important inning of the season, the Mets set the table with a walk by Wilson Ramos and a single by pinch-hitter J.D. Davis to put runners at the corners with no one out. Juan Lagares entered the game to pinch-run for Ramos. Brandon Nimmo was next, and he delivered his third hit of the game, scoring Lagares to tie the game at 4-4. It was Nimmo’s 24th RBI of the year.

McNeil followed with an excellent at-bat drawing a walk after being down in the count 0-2. The bases were loaded with no one out. Alonso was next as he faced new pitcher Joe Harvey. Alonso walked on four pitches to give them a 5-4 lead. Cano hit into a 6-4-3 double play scoring Nimmo to make the Mets lead 6-4. Then Seth Lugo came up for the first time this year and laced a single to center to give the Mets a 7-4 advantage. It was the fourth career RBI for Lugo.

Pitching

Noah Syndergaard made his 30th start of the season on Wednesday. He struck out three in the first inning, working around a single by Nolan Arenado.

In the second, the Rockies answered McNeil’s home run with one of their own. After one out, September call-up Sam Hilliard slugged a ball into the second deck in right-center to tie the score at 1-1. It was Hilliard’s third home run of the year.

Syndergaard gave up three hits in the third, but kept the Rockies off the board. Hoffman, McMahon, and Arenado each singled. But a double play helped keep the Rockies at bay to keep the score tied.

Colorado took the lead in the fourth. Hilliard hit what looked like a routine fly ball to left that carried ten rows deep in the stands to give the Rockies a 2-1 lead. It was the right fielder’s second homer of the game and fourth of the year.

The Rockies extended their lead in the fifth. They loaded the bases on singles by Hoffman and Story. Then McMahon walked, Syndergaard’s first of the game, to load the bases with no outs. After a pop-out by Arenado, Charlie Blackmon hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Hoffman and give Colorado a 3-1 lead.

After Alonso’s home run in the sixth to cut the Colorado lead to 3-2, Syndergaard could not put up a zero in the bottom of the inning. Hampson singled with one out and proceeded to steal second and third. Raimel Tapia came in to pinch-hit and rocketed a single to right to plate Hampson and give the Rockies a 4-2 lead. After Story walked, Syndergaard was taken out of the game in favor of Jeurys Familia.

Familia struck out McMahon to limit the damage to only one run. Considering the Rockies stole four bases in the inning, the Mets were fortunate to still be in the game. Rivera had a particularly tough inning attempting to throw-out Rockies runners on the bases further exacerbating Mickey Callaways’s decision to keep him in the game in the top of the sixth.

Noah Syndergaard’s final line was 5 2/3 IP, 10 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 6 Ks 108 pitches, 4.22 ERA. It was the third straight start that Syndergaard has given up four earned runs.

Brad Brach pitched a strong seventh inning getting the Rockies in order.

Seth Lugo entered the game to pitch the eighth and retired the Rockies in order, striking out two. He finished things off in the ninth to preserve the important win for the Mets.

On Deck

The Mets have the day off tomorrow. They will begin their final road series of the season on Friday as they begin a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds. In a good game one match-up, Jacob deGrom (9-8, 2.61 ERA) faces Luis Castillo (15-5, 3.22 ERA).

DeGrom pitched brilliantly in his last start on Saturday against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He pitched seven shutout innings allowing only three hits against the National League’s top offense. He is now third in the league in ERA and leads the NL in WHIP (1.005) and strikeouts (239). Jacob is very much in the Cy Young conversation for 2019.

Castillo will be looking to add to his career-high in wins. He has won four of his last five starts and is coming off a victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. The third-year pitcher will be making his second start of the year against the Mets. On April 30, he went 6 2/3 innings against New York allowing two runs on five hits in a game the Mets eventually won, 4-3. Castillo has 211 strikeouts which rank eighth in the NL.

First pitch will be at 7:10 PM on September 20. The game will be televised by SNY and broadcast on WCBS 880-AM.