It’s no secret: Ronny Mauricio had not been good going into Friday.

Neither had the Mets.

Yet, against all odds, Mauricio played hero as the Mets won their 11th game of the season on Friday.

Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

For the second straight game, the Mets erased a 3-0 deficit. While they were unable to finish the job on Thursday, they got the win on Friday — with Mauricio providing the final jolt the Mets needed.

“We haven’t been able to win games like that, when you get down 3-0 and the feeling is like, ‘All right,'” Carlos Mendoza told reporters after the game. “Today, that wasn’t the case. It was something different. The energy in the dugout; just the guys playing loose, the guys playing their game.”

Batting in the seventh inning with the game tied at 3-3, Mauricio was pounded with high fastballs by right-hander José Fermin. He took the first two, putting himself in a 1-1 count before blasting the third out to right-center for a go-ahead home run. It was a no-doubter.

“Excited,” Mauricio said on SNY through a translator after the game. “To be able to help the team in that moment…it was really special.”

The ball traveled 421 feet and registered at 111.3 mph off the bat.

With that swing, Mauricio reminded everyone just how hard he can hit the ball when he gets one in his wheelhouse. Mauricio’s issues are mostly approach-related. In 29 plate appearances, he’s walked precisely zero times this season. He came into Friday striking out nearly 40% of the time. His strikeout rate is just under 35% for his MLB career.

It’s not surprising that the homer came against a fastball. Mauricio hit just .148 against breaking balls last year, and he’s 0-for-10 with five strikeouts against them this year. He was much better against fastballs last season, hitting .270 with a .459 slugging percentage.

Mauricio had gone 5-for-28 (.179) at the plate this season before that homer.

“The team has been going through a little bit of a rough patch, but it’s like a phrase that I live by: It’s not how you start, it’s how you end,” Mauricio said through a translator. “Each and every day, we come in and work. … Sometimes the results aren’t always gonna be there, but the work is always gonna be there and we’re always here for each other.”

The motivation described by Mendoza and Mauricio is something that has seemed lacking during the Mets’ woes.

Mendoza admitted as much — that the Mets were starting to feel defeated when facing early deficits. But back-to-back games coming back from three runs down warrants some cautious optimism that things might be swaying back in a positive direction.

Take a glance at the Mets batters’ OPS marks, and it’s pretty ugly outside of Juan Soto and MJ Melendez. Mauricio’s was especially ghastly at .385 entering the day — granted, in a fairly small sample.

At the very least, the Mets are starting to show a little more fight, even if they’re not operating at full capacity.

If the Mets want to go on a magical run to erase all of the ugliness, a home run like that from Mauricio was a good place to start.