The New York Mets (66-60) managed to complete a walk-off victory over the Cleveland Indians (74-53) by a score of 4-3 in this amazing night at Citi Field that I was able to attend. (Box Score)

For each game I write the recap for, I like to focus on some tendencies of whoever is pitching for the Mets that night. On Wednesday night, it was Marcus Stroman. Something I will keep referencing throughout this recap is his fastball usage, which has jumped to 72.6% in a Mets uniform from 59.1% as a Blue Jay this season.

Offense

Adam Plutko didn’t allow a baserunner his first time through the order. That was not a typo. It was actually pretty sad. Plutko, sporting a 4.67 ERA coming into the game, needed just 27 pitches to get through three innings. The righty struck out four and didn’t allow one fair ball with an exit velocity over 100 mph.

Joe Panik finally ended the madness by hitting a single with one out in the fourth inning, but the Mets made nothing of it. Then, in the fifth inning, things got very interesting. Todd Frazier had the second hit of the night, a single with one out, which was followed by an RBI double into the right-center field gap from Juan Lagares and another RBI double by pinch-hitter Luis Guillorme to take a 2-1 lead. Unlikely heroes.

In a missed opportunity with a RISP, the Mets couldn’t bring Guillorme home as Amed Rosario flew out and Panik popped out to end the frame. The Mets then reverted to making Plutko look better than he actually is in the sixth inning, going down in order.

Plutko didn’t come back out for the seventh inning after throwing 85 pitches on the night, finishing with a line of 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO. Right-hander Nick Goody came on in relief, and while the Mets threatened to score, they couldn’t put any runs on the board.

Following two walks to Frazier and Lagares, Goody set down Rajai Davis swinging and got Rosario to fly out again to end the inning. A familiar face, Oliver Perez, came on to pitch the eighth inning for the Indians. After giving up a leadoff hit to Panik, the lefty specialist was able to strike out Pete Alonso and Michael Conforto swinging.

Adam Cimber came in and got Ramos to groundout to end the inning. Nick Wittgren pitched the ninth and outside of Lagares’ second hit of the night, a single to center, was able to keep the Mets from generating anything else. To extras, we go.

Down one run going into the bottom of the 10th, the Mets were no strangers to the position that they were in. Rosario led off the inning against closer Brad Hand by hitting a double into the RCF gap. Panik then executed a perfect bunt to move Rosario over to third base.

Surprisingly, the Indians decided to give a free pass to Alonso and put the winning run on base for Conforto. Putting the ball in play, Conforto got the run across on an RBI groundout in which Hand didn’t cover first base for the double play. That made the score 3-3.

Wilson Ramos then hit an infield single to put the winning RISP. Yes, Wilson Ramos hit an infield single.

J.D. Davis stepped up to the plate and delivered! His first career walk-off hit, Davis played hero tonight as he took a hanging breaking ball in the middle of the plate to left field for the win.

Pitching

It definitely wasn’t the easiest first couple of innings for Stroman. The righty worked his way in and out of a considerable amount of trouble while allowing one run after three innings. In the second inning, Stroman, facing two on and two out, managed to get the opposing pitcher Adam Plutko to ground out. Welcome to the National League, Cleveland.

In the third inning, Marcus found himself in yet another predicament, facing second and third with just one out. Yasiel Puig then grounded out to Todd Frazier at third base to score a run and put the Indians ahead 1-0, which was followed by a fly-out to RF off the bat of Jose Ramirez. Stroman continued to in fastballs, with 38 of his first 54 pitches coming by way of cutter or sinker.

Stroman then set the Indians down in order in the fourth, inducing more relatively weak contact. In an unfortunate turn of events, Marcus didn’t come out for the fifth inning due to left hamstring tightness. His night ended with a line of 4 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO. For those keeping count at home, he threw 44 of his 62 pitches for fastballs, which put him at a usage rate of 71%. That’s right on par with whats he’s shown during his short Met career.

Jeurys Familia came on in relief, needing only 10 pitches to put the Indians down in order in the fifth inning. That makes 10 IP, 2 ER and 13 Ks for Familia in the month of August.

Brad Brach came out for the sixth, which didn’t go as smoothly as the previous inning. It actually could have been a lot worse, especially after a Jose Ramirez triple to tie the game at 2-2. With Ramirez on third base, Brach managed to strike out both Jason Kipnis and Roberto Perez to avoid any further damage.

Justin Wilson came on in the seventh and continued his own dominant August stretch by throwing another scoreless inning. That makes 7.2 IP, 1 ER and 11 Ks for Wilson this month. Seth Lugo then came in to pitch the eighth inning with things still tied up at 2. As efficient as ever, Lugo just needed eight pitches to get through the frame. The ninth inning wasn’t as easy for Lugo even though it took him only 10 pitches. A leadoff single by Jason Kipnis ended up in scoring position, but the Indians couldn’t capitalize. Remarkably, Lugo threw 15 of his 18 pitches for strikes tonight.

The Mets opted to use Luis Avilan rather than Edwin Diaz to begin the 10th inning and face the top of the Indians lineup. It was going well for the lefty until Carlos Santana stepped up to the plate with nobody on and two out. That’s when Santana clobbered a decent changeup for the first home run of the game to put the Indians ahead 3-2. The home run had an exit velocity of 107.3 MPH and a distance of 397 ft. Puig then struck out swinging.

On Deck

The Mets look for the series sweep on Thursday at 7:10 PM ET, when Noah Syndergaard (8-6, 3.86 ERA) faces off against rookie right-hander Aaron Civale (1-2, 1.50 ERA) at Citi Field.