Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

In the Mets’ 60 seasons, the team had never lost a game when they had a lead of at least nine runs. Saturday afternoon, that almost happened.

The Mets eked out an 11-9 victory over the Nationals Saturday afternoon in extra innings, taking the first leg of their 13th doubleheader of the year and avoiding embarrassment in the process.

The team opened the game with three straight singles at Nationals Park, putting them up 1-0. A Pete Alonso sac fly put them up another run, but then the flood gates opened in the second inning.

Sending nine batters to the plate, four of them scored, thanks in part to two errors by Alcides Escobar and some other poor defensive choices by the Nationals. The four-run inning was capped by a Brandon Nimmo RBI single and Francisco Lindor sac fly. (Nimmo left the game after the top of the second when he tweaked his right hamstring rounding third on the final out of the inning.)

The Mets scored in each of the next two innings, too, with a Patrick Mazeika RBI single in the third and a Michael Conforto two-run homer in the fourth. That put them up 9-0. Sounds good, right? Well…

The Nats were held scoreless through the first three innings by Marcus Stroman, even though the team’s ace struggled with his command throughout the day. Those issues reared their head in the fourth, when the first four Nats got on base (including a bases-loaded walk from Andrew Stevenson). Stroman got the next two batters to hit sacrifice flies, and Juan Soto grounded out to end the inning with a comfortable 9-3 lead.

Not to be lost in Stroman’s start was one of the best defensive plays you’ll see from a pitcher, when Juan Soto tried to take third base in the third inning when the base was empty following an error.

Miguel Castro came in for the sixth, and while his control wasn’t pinpoint either, two errors by the Mets in the frame prolonged it. Two runs came into scored on a bases-loaded double by Alcides Escobar (making up for his two errors in the second) to close the lead to 9-5.

That’s when Brad Hand made his Mets debut against Juan Soto. Super casual. But more mayhem ensued.

Soto hit an easy ground ball to Pete Alonso, but Alonso flubbed it and threw a poor ball to Hand at first. It got away, and two more runs scored to make it 9-7. Josh Bell singled next, and the Nats had first and third with one out and Ryan Zimmerman–a guy who was 8-for-13 in his career against Hand–up to bat.

Hand got Zimmerman to bounce to third base, the defense corrected itself and turned a double play.

Then, in the last regulation inning, Seth Lugo got two of the first three Nationals out. But Andrew Stevenson–the guy who nearly wrecked Chance Sisco Friday night–had other plans for the day and belted a two-out, two-run homer to tie the game.

So, the two teams went to extras for the second time in as many games.

The Mets didn’t score in the top of the eighth, but then Trevor May worked some magic to escape a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the inning to push the game to the ninth.

Then, in what normally would be the last inning of a normal game, the Mets finally pushed more runs across the plate when Francisco Lindor hit a towering two-run homer to right field to open the frame.

Heath Hembree, who the Mets picked up less than two weeks ago, pitched the ninth inning, didn’t allow a run and saved this devil-of-a-game.

That’s seven straight wins for the Mets now, including the completion of their suspended game from April on Tuesday. They’re above .500 again with a 68-67 record.

Game 2 of the doubleheader was scheduled to start at 6:05 p.m., but with the four-hour game length of Game 1, it may be a little bit after that. (It’s a split-doubleheader, so the Game 1 crowd has to leave, and the Game 2 has to have ample time to shuffle in.)

Tylor Megill will be on the mound for the Mets in the night cap. Megill had a rocky August (6.44 ERA in 29 1/3 innings), but he ended the month on a plus note with five innings of two-run ball against the Nationals last weekend. Megill will look to have similar success against a similar lineup.

This will be the fourth time in Megill’s short career he has faced the same team in back-to-back starts. He had success the second time facing the team twice (Atlanta and Pittburgh). He struggled against the Giants, though, allowing seven runs in 3 2/3 innings the second time facing them.

The Nationals will throw lefty Josh Rogers out to start. The 27-year-old has a career 8.65 ERA in 26 innings (all for the Orioles). He was released by Baltimore earlier this season, and Washington claimed him during the summer. This will be his first appearance for the Nationals.

Rogers had a 3.70 ERA through 73 innings in Triple-A with the Rochester Red Wings before being called up head of the Saturday doubleheader. He’s the Nationals’ 29th man for the game.