Mandatory Credit: Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports

On September 29, 2019, the Wilpons still owned the Mets, Brodie van Waganen was making front-office decisions and Mickey Callaway was the team’s manager. It was also the last time Noah Syndergaard threw a pitch for the Mets.

Nearly two years to the day after, with a new owner, manager and team president in place, and a Tommy John surgery 18 month behind him, Thor threw another pitch.

It was a 96 mile-per-hour fastball down the middle to Miguel Rojas–a couple ticks lower that his usual flame-throwing, but effective enough to get ahead of all three batters Syndergaard faced Tuesday night at Citi Field. He struck the first two out, going above the letters on Rojas and dropping a change up down and away to get Jazz Chisholm. Bryan de la Cruz grounded out to end Syndergaard’s first inning back.

The return of Thor highlighted the Mets 2-1 win over the Marlins in Game 2 of the day’s doubleheader. At least until extra innings.

After winning Game 1 in the afternoon with help from a dozen base runners, the Mets struggled to get anyone on base in Game 2 off Trevor Rogers through four innings. The first didn’t come until Javier Báez stroked a single into left with two outs in the fourth. (That extended his hitting streak to 12 games, and he’s reached base safely in 21 straight games–extending a career high.)

Jonathan Villar opened the fifth with a double off Rogers, and Kevin Pillar knocked him home two batters later to tie the game at one.

That’s all the Mets would score until the bottom of the ninth inning–extra innings in this timeline–when James McCann pulled a Patrick Mazeika.

With Báez on third and one out, McCann dribbled a ball to the left of the pitcher’s mound. Báez sped home, Anthony Bass couldn’t field it cleanly and the Mets walked it off.

This was the fouth doubleheader of 14 the Mets swept this year. They split the other 10.

The Marlins only pushed one run across the plate in the nine frames. It came on a towering Jesus Sanchez home run off Trevor Williams. It was the first pitch Williams threw in relief of Syndergaard. He settled in after that, though, and got six of his next 12 outs via strikeout. A couple Marlins reached base over Williams four post-dinger frames, but none came around to score.

Miguel Castro and Trevor May each delivered scoreless innings after that in regulation, then Jeurys Familia and Brad Hand kept the Marlins at bay in the “extra” eighth and ninth innings. Familia started his frame with a career first: a pick off. The victim was phantom runner Magneuris Sierra, who took one-too-many steps off second to open extras.

The four-game set from the two teams continues Wednesday with Taijuan Walker (7-11, 4.57) on the mound for the Mets and Elieser Hernandez (1-3, 4.24) pitching for the Marlins.

It will likely be the last start of the year from Walker, who last time out allowed allowed six earned runs to the Red Sox in just two innings. He allowed two home runs in that start as his long-ball problems in the second half continued. He’s only had two starts out of 12 in the second half where he hasn’t allowed a homer. One of those was his third-of-an-inning debacle in Pittsburgh coming out of the gate.

Walker will look to end the year strong in a season that he has to view as a success no matter the results Wednesday. After throwing 67 1/3 innings from 2018 to 2020, Walker crossed the 150-inning mark with his last start and made it through the year without any shoulder or elbow injuries–something that marred a portion of his first half-a-dozen seasons in the bigs.

Player of the Game: Noah Syndergaard

Thor’s back, and that should be celebrated. His appearance today was exactly what you wanted to see after all the ups and downs of his Tommy John recovery. Originally thought to come back in early June this season, Syndergaard faced setback that pushed his timeline to late August. Then a COVID-19 diagnosis pushed that back even further, and his first pitch finally came in the last week of the year.

Syndergaard is a free agent after the World Series, so coming back to pitch in a major-league game before hitting the market is as important for him as it is the Mets at this point.