Mandatory Credit: Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports

Thirty minutes later and I’m just starting to breathe a little easier.

Taijuan Walker pitched a gem, Pete Alonso provided all the RBI tonight and Seth Lugo got through a crazy final two innings for the Mets as they held on to beat the Cubs 3-2 on Tuesday night.

It’s their second win in a row to start the four-game series.

It was a damn adventure the final two frames (we’ll get into that soon), but this is the kind of game that convinces you the Mets can hang with any team in the majors, especially once they return to full strength.

They had wonderful pitching (and didn’t need to use their best reliever), played perfect defense and produced runs with solid base running and timely hitting.

Though they’re a team rife with power potential, they were able to produce three runs with small-ball tendencies Tuesday. The first two runs came on a Pete Alonso first-pitch single up the middle, which piggybacked on a Dom Smith opposite-field double that put himself on second and Francisco Lindor on third.

The team worked a couple walks in the fifth inning to load the bases for Pete, and Alonso hit a sac fly to put the team up 3-2. It stayed that way the last four innings behind shutdown frames from Walker and Lugo.

Taijuan threw seven innings tonight, his fifth start of that length this year. That’s two more than Jacob deGrom, and four more than any other Met, as MMO’s own Mathew Brownstein points out.

Walker allowed two runs on a Javy Baez dinger in the second inning, but he locked in after that.

He finished the night with a career-high 12 strikeouts — 11 of them came from his four-seam and two-seam fastballs. Six of those 12 strikeouts came from peppering his two-seamer inside to left-handed hitters.

Almost as impressive as his 12 strikeouts was his zero walks allowed. After struggling with walks his first couple starts (14 BB over his first 21 innings), Walker has allowed just six walks total in his last five outings (27 innings).

Walker’s ERA now sits at 2.12 (0.05 higher than it was to start the night, actually), and he’d be in the early-season Cy Young conversation were it not for his teammate making that a moot point.

And then Seth Lugo entered the game.

His eighth inning was his best inning all year: 10 pitches, two strikeouts and the top of the Cubs didn’t really know what to do with him. The Mets clearly wanted two innings out of Lugo with Edwin Diaz and Aaron Loup pitching three of the last four days, Jeurys Familia and Miguel Castro still not available and Trevor May in a rut.

So Seth Lugo stayed in to hit in the ninth.

He came up with men on first and second, so clearly in a bunting situation. Lugo bunted, but popped it up. Anthony Rizzo, a smart man, let the ball drop after the runners froze, threw it to second for an out, then the ball dropped on the relay at first base.

Seth Lugo kicked it into gear and ended up safe, so now he was on the bases. The Cubs barely get out of the inning on the next play (Rizzo saved the Cubs with a nice pick on a poor Patrick Wisdom throw), but out came Lugo for the ninth for a second inning of work after running the bases.

Lugo got Rizzo to ground out, but Willson Contreras singled to right. Former-Met Jake Marisnick came on to pinch run for the catcher, and Eric Sogard pinch hit in the pitchers spot.

Sogard singled into the right-center field gap. Kevin Pillar got over to it quickly and whipped it into Luis Guillorme who found out Marisnick didn’t stop at third. Guillorme fired a one-hopper to McCann and nabbed Marisnick at the plate.

It was the second out of the inning, but it really had the energy of a game-ending throw.

Jason Heyward walked after that, adding suspense of course, but Sergio Alcantara struck out for the final out of the game.

Lugo threw 37 pitches tonight, so he’ll likely have a couple days off after this. The team’s performance in the ninth Tuesday reminds you of how different this Mets team is from years past. Their pitching and defense are their guiding light.

They’ll look to continue their run against the Cubs Wednesday night as Jacob deGrom returns to the mound.

DeGrom, the best pitcher in baseball, had an injury scare his last time out, leaving Friday’s start after six innings and just 80 pitches with right elbow inflammation. DeGrom said he was fine after the game and left for precautionary reasons. He tested his elbow with catch and a bullpen session since then, and now he’s all systems go for Wednesday.

There’s no word on whether deGrom will be on a pitch count, but you have to imagine the Mets will take tomorrow’s start inning-by-inning. The current MVP front runner knows his body extremely well, and he won’t push it if he doesn’t feel like he can.

Conversely, he may feel good enough to run up the pitch count. We’ll have to watch and find out.

The Cubs will oppose deGrom with Robert Stock, a 31-year-old with no career starts at the major-league level. Stock has started two games in the minors this year, though. He went four innings in each start. He may give deGrom a run for his money for the hardest pitch thrown Wednesday as Stock allegedly has touched 102 m.p.h. with his fastball.

Wednesday’s game starts at 7:10 p.m. and will exclusively be on SNY after the last two games have been simulcast on ESPN.