Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Just when the New York Mets make us want to give up, they find a way to pull us back in.

OK, that sounds a little dramatic, but let’s be honest, #MetsTwitter hasn’t been a fun place to hang out during the first two games of New York’s series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. And the results on the field were only part of the story.

Let’s rewind back to the final game prior to the All-Star Break. You know the one, where the Mets jumped out to an early 5-0 lead against Pittsburgh and slowly let it slip away, punctuated by a ninth-inning blown save from Edwin Diaz. To open the second half, they had an opportunity to pad their record against the Pirates again, but the offense looked lifeless on Friday night. Then, Francisco Lindor got hurt and eventually went on the injured list. Then, meltdowns by Seth Lugo and Diaz on Saturday night led to the Pirates hitting a walk-off grand slam.

That was followed by Jacob deGrom going on the IL again, and then New York put together a nightmarish first inning where Taijuan Walker only recorded one out while allowing six runs on Sunday. That’s rough. The injuries to Lindor and deGrom — both of which don’t really have a solid timeline for a return yet — are bad enough. Losing your best pitcher and best position player (when using fWAR as the barometer) is a tough pill to swallow. Add on the demoralizing losses and that’s enough to break just about any team in the midst of a pennant race.

At least for one day, Dominic Smith, Travis Blankenhorn, Michael Conforto, and the rest of the Mets used it as fuel to secure one of the club’s most dramatic victories of the season.

I’ve watched Conforto’s home run at least 10 times by now and I still get chills. It was nice to give Gary Thorne one win to call during his temporary stay in the booth, too.

Watching this unfold after what’s happened to the organization over the last four games was incredible. It’s enough to make someone speechless for a short period of time. Marcus Stroman summed it up quite well with this post-game tweet, though:

As usual, the right-hander nailed it on the head. New York has been constantly dealing with adversity this season, whether it’s a tough loss, virtually the entire active roster getting injured at the same time, or something else. It’s almost as if these guys need adversity to take things to another level.

Now behind the eight-ball again with injuries to two significant players, it’ll be interesting to watch how they respond. The rest of this month also won’t be a walk in the park, as they’ll be facing the Cincinnati Reds twice, the Toronto Blue Jays once, and the Atlanta Braves once (five games in four days). The saving grace here is that 10 of the Mets’ next 13 games are at Citi Field, where they’ve been a much better team (28-14 record) than they have on the road (20-28).

Look, nobody — and I mean nobody — wants Lindor or deGrom on the injured list, and definitely not at the same time. But based on how this group rose to the occasion as they battled through countless injuries earlier in the season, it’s hard not to wonder if these events (plus Sunday’s incredible win) will be that circle-this-date-on-the-calendar moment that ignites them through the dog days of summer.

I recently talked about some team-wide trends and scenarios to keep an eye on now that we’re past the All-Star break, but there’s one I didn’t mention that speaks to this team’s resilience: their ability to minimize the length of losing streaks. While it’s happened on five different occasions already this year, the Mets still haven’t lost more than three games in a row in 2021. During last year’s 60-game season, they had two separate five-game losing streaks.

While competitive teams maximize performance peaks, it’s just as crucial for them to minimize the performance valleys. New York has been successful in doing that so far this year, even with all the turnover this roster has gone through due to a laundry list of injuries. That one fact alone tells me they’re up for what’s ended up being just the latest challenge.

This team’s journey through its first 90 games feels similar to that of the 2015 club, which our old friend, Ryan Finkelstein, pointed out. Through the ups and downs, the Mets have proven they can perform, and although they haven’t run away with the National League East, nobody else has made a real move toward the top with any kind of consistent play. New York’s front office was likely going to make an impactful move or two before Lindor and deGrom landed on the IL, and now it almost feels like it has to happen.

Trevor Story? Kris Bryant? Josh Donaldson and Jose Berrios? Someone else? Who knows what the next couple of weeks will bring. If we can be sure of anything, though, it’s that it’ll be interesting and the Mets will either make us want to laugh and scream with jubilation or feel extreme sadness and frustration. And sometimes, all of those feelings will be wrapped up within the span of four hours.

However, the one constant is these dudes aren’t just going to crumble — they’re going to find a way to fight all the way to the end.