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Let’s face it: Thursday’s Opening Day win was too easy. Too stress-free. The Mets aren’t really, truly back until they have a game that makes you question all the life choices that led to you deciding to spend three precious hours of your day watching them. Well, you best believe it: the Mets are officially BACK after today’s game in which the bats were held silent for three hours, followed by some extra innings nonsense. And yet, while this game was looking like it was going to be the first infuriating loss of the season, it instead proved to be the first thrilling come-from-behind victory of the season, with Luis Robert Jr. socking an 11th inning walk-off bomb to give the Mets win number two of 2026.

It was a cold and windy day at Citi Field today, and that perhaps played a role in both offenses being helpless for most of the afternoon. Starting pitchers David Peterson and Mitch Keller both put up zeroes in the first four innings while giving up just two hits and keeping their pitch counts low. The Pirates did load the bases with two outs in the top of the fifth against Peterson, but he induced a pop-up to first base from Marcell Ozuna to keep the game scoreless. He got in trouble again in the following inning by giving up two singles—one on a sharp grounder to first that Jorge Polanco couldn’t handle, and another on a bloop single to center—and Carlos Mendoza decided to pull his starter there after 5.1 innings of work in which he surrendered six hits and two walks while recording three strikeouts (a fairly quintessential statline for the longest-tenured Met). But Huascar Brazobán came out of the bullpen and got out of the jam to preserve Peterson’s 0.00 2026 ERA and keep the game scoreless.

Still, the Mets continued to be unable to get any rallies going against Keller. After Luke Weaver tossed a scoreless top of the seventh, the Pirates mercifully went to their bullpen after six scoreless innings from their starter, and it looked like the Amazins might finally break through after back-to-back leadoff walks against Justin Lawrence (who surrendered two homers in Thursday’s game). But he came back to strikeout Brett Baty and Marcus Semien, and the Pirates then brought in Gregory Soto to face Carson Benge, who also struck out to end the threat and prevent the first run of the game from crossing the plate.

After a 1-2-3 inning from Brooks Raley, the Mets tried again to score against Soto in the bottom of the eighth, and Francisco Alvarez started the frame with a leadoff walk and was subsequently pinch-ran for by Tyrone Taylor with the top of the order coming up. Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto were both retired, but Taylor wound up on third base (advancing to second on a wild pitch and to third on a fielder’s choice) to give Bo Bichette—the best hitter with runners in scoring position last year—a chance to give the Mets the lead. Alas, he instead struck out swinging, and the game headed to the ninth with goose eggs on both sides.

Devin Williams came on to make his Mets debut in the top of the ninth. Coming the day after Edwin Díaz made a successful debut for the Dodgers, we were gearing to have some major #discourse from the hysterical population of the Mets fanbase if the team’s new closer blew the game this early in the season. And much like the previous closer, Williams bent—allowing a double and walk in the inning—but did not break, striking out Bryan Reynolds with two outs to end the Pittsburgh threat and send the game into the bottom of the ninth. For the third straight inning—this time against new Pirates pitcher Dennis Santana—the Mets worked a leadoff walk to start the inning, and the winning run advanced to second on a fielder’s choice grounder to first by Luis Robert Jr. Alas, Baty then lined a ball to first base, and the runner at second was doubled off to send the game to extras.

Luis García—who surrendered two runs in his first outing of the season on Thursday—was called upon in the tenth, and the Pirates finally managed to bring home the first run of the ballgame against him on a one-out single to center off the bat of Nick Gonzales. He threatened to give up more after loading the bases on an infield single and a walk, but he retired Jake Mangum on a groundout to third base to keep the deficit at one, giving the Amazins the chance to at least tie the game with the ghost runner at second to start the bottom of the frame.

Well, the Mets finally did score a run in the bottom of the inning—and yet it somehow proved to be the most frustrating inning in a game full of them. Facing off against rookie lefty Hunter Barco with the bottom of the order due up, Semien started things off by getting hit by a pitch. Mendoza then called upon Mark Vientos to pinch-hit for Benge, and Swaggy V started his 2026 season by getting a single to left to load the bases with nobody out. That brought up Luis Torrens, who entered the game after Alvarez left for a pinch-runner earlier. The Mets might have preferred to have the latter up in this spot, but no matter—Torrens came through with another single to left to tie the game and keep the bases loaded. So with no outs and the top of the order coming up, surely the Amazins had this win in the bag, yes? Well… no. Lindor and Soto both had identical outcomes in their respective at-bats, hitting grounders that resulted in force-outs at home plate. Then with two outs, Bichette—who’d already failed with a runner in scoring position earlier—flew out to right field to end the inning. Thus, we were no longer scoreless, but still tied. Onto the eleventh!

With basically everyone else in the bullpen having been used by this point, Mendoza had to turn to Richard Lovelady to try to keep the Pirates off the board. He might be the last man in the bullpen pecking order, but he came pretty dang close to getting out of the inning unscathed after recording the first two outs, with the second out coming via a grounder to second that advanced the ghost runner to second. That unfortunately proved to be consequential, as Reynolds then hit a soft grounder down the third base line that stayed fair and allowed the second Pirates run of the day to score. And Lovelady almost subsequently surrendered even more after Marcell Ozuna lined a ball to right field and put runners on the corners, but he instead struck out Gonzales to end the threat and once again hold the Pirates to just one extra-inning run.

Still, just like last inning, one couldn’t help but feel as though we were setting up for a disappointing end to the game in which the Mets couldn’t bring home the ghost runner. But that very quickly proved to not be the case. Polanco walked to lead-off the inning against Barco, and Robert—lefty-masher that he is—had himself his first signature moment with his new team, as he socked a three-run homer over the left field wall to double the amount of runs scored in today’s game, and to give the Mets the come-from-behind victory.

In the end, it’s just win number two. We still have 160 games to go. But we certainly have seen plenty of these types of games go the other way for the Mets in years past—particularly last season—so to overcome the mostly frustrating affair and come out on the winning side is nevertheless a breath of fresh air. Now we will see the Amazins go for the sweep tomorrow with Nolan McLean taking the mound.

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Win Probability Added

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Luis Robert Jr. (duh), +50.4% WPA
Big Mets loser: Luis García and Richard Lovelady, -31.0% WPA
Mets pitchers: +4.8% WPA
Mets hitters: +45.2% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Luis Robert Jr. walk-off three-run homer in the 11th (duh again), +49.1% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Bryan Reynolds RBI single in the 11th, -34.0% WPA

The Mets rallied in the 11th inning to defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-2 on Saturday at Citi Field, as Luis Robert Jr. hit a three-run home run to end the game.

The Mets didn’t score until the 10th inning, but rallied twice in extra innings to pull out the win.

Here are the takeaways...

-Here’s how the Mets won it in the 11th: with the free runner at second, Marcus Semien drew a walk and then Robert Jr. jumped all over an 82-mph slider from lefty Hunter Barco, hitting it over the left field wall for the game-winner.

The Mets’ high-leverage relievers were essentially flawless on Saturday, but with the game in extra innings Luis Garcia and Richard Lovelady each gave up a run in the 10th and 11th innings.

-The Mets rallied in the bottom of the 10th inning to tie the score at 1-1, but missed a golden opportunity to win the game as Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, and Bo Bichette all failed to deliver the winning run from third base. to defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-1 at Citi Field on Saturday, pushing their record to 2-0.

Luis Torrens had lined a single to left, tying the game at 1-1. Lindor grounded to second for a force out at the plate, then Soto got jammed on a fastball, and squibbed a ball slowly between the pitcher and the third base line. Barco made a nice play, getting to it and flipping it home to get another force out at the plate.

Bichette then flew out to right to end the inning.

For the day the Mets managed six hits, and Robert Jr.’s home run was their only extra-base hit. They went 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position.

-Bichette, who hit .381 last season w/RISP, had two big chances to change the game. He struck out with two outs in the eighth inning with the go-ahead run on third base at the time, looking bad chasing sliders down-and-in from Pirates’ lefty Gregory Soto.

And then in the 10th, with the bases loaded and two outs, he got under a 1-1 sweeper from Barco and flew out routinely to right.

-In his first appearance replacing Edwin Diaz as Mets closer, Devin Williams put up a zero in his first appearance as closer for the Mets, striking out Bryan Reynolds with runners at first and third to end the top of the ninth and keep the game tied at the time.

A line double by Jake Mangum and then a two-out walk to Ryan O’Hearn set up the Reynolds at-bat.

Williams got ahead of Reynolds 0-2 with two fastballs, one fouled off. After showing him his signature change-up, the air-bender, for a ball down, Williams beat Reynolds with a fastball for the swinging strikeout.

That finished up an outstanding day for the key relievers in the Mets’ bullpen, as Huascar Brazoban, Luke Weaver, and Brooks Raley all put up zeroes as well over the final 3.2 innings.

-David Peterson delivered a solid first start of the season. Despite allowing nine baserunners, on six hits, two walks, and a Bichette error, the lefthander held the Pirates scoreless over 5.1 innings as he made big pitches to get out of trouble in the fourth and fifth, and got relief help from Brazoban to escape the sixth.

For Peterson, it was a good sign as he looks to bounce back from his poor performance in the second half of last season, especially in September, after making the All-Star team with a strong first half.

Before Saturday’s game, Carlos Mendoza said he felt confident that Peterson’s slump was mostly the result of “hitting the wall” after throwing a career-high 165 innings.

Peterson’s biggest pitch was a 2-0 fastball, with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth inning, to Marcell Ozuna. Though the four-seamer was clocked at only 89 mph, Ozuna popped it up for an easy out.

Peterson’s velocity was down a bit throughout the game compared to last season. He was mostly 89-90 with his four-seamer, which averaged 92.3 mph last season.

Brazoban came on with runners at first and second in the sixth, and one out, and shut the door.

-Bichette made his first error at his new position of third base, fielding a routine ground ball from Reynolds in the fourth inning but then throwing high and wide of first base, as Polanco had to come off the base to catch the ball, too far off to tar the runner.

Bichette also made something of an unconventional play on a slow ground ball, positioning himself as he moved to his left so he could field the ball backhanded. It looked odd, but it put him in position to use his momentum to make a strong throw.

-Mitch Keller threw six shutout innings for the Pirates, allowing only three baserunners, all on singles.

Keller has historically been tough on the Mets. He came in with a 2.06 career ERA against them in six previous starts, though the ERA was higher, 3.46, in two starts at Citi Field.

Game MVP: Luis Robert Jr.

Duh. Robert Jr. is a gamble that so far is paying off in a big way, after coming over in a trade from the Chicago White Sox at a $20 million salary this season.

The Mets are convinced that if he can just stay healthy, he can put up a season as he did in 2023 when he was an AL All-Star.

Highlights

Bo Bichette's first hit as a Met! pic.twitter.com/w4ZJFRKBwu

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 28, 2026

David Peterson gets Marcell Ozuna to pop out and escapes a bases-loaded jam pic.twitter.com/i1nxplposH

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 28, 2026

STRUCK HIM OUT!

Devin Williams fans Bryan Reynolds to keep the game scoreless! pic.twitter.com/l7i1L0gLco

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 28, 2026

Two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 inning for Brooks Raley! 💪 pic.twitter.com/jpUuNrEtmO

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 28, 2026

LUIS TORRENS TIES THE GAME IN THE 10TH! pic.twitter.com/hHMl8vEjfl

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 28, 2026

LA PANTERA ARRIVES IN QUEENS.

LUIS ROBERT JR. WITH A WALK-OFF HOME RUN!!!! pic.twitter.com/qJ2JbnRVL9

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 28, 2026

What's next

The Mets and Pirates wrap up their weekend series on Sunday. First pitch is set for 1:40 p.m.

Nolan McLean will make his 2026 debut, and he'll go against Carmen Miodzinski.

It took the Mets 10 innings to get on the scoreboard, but the result was worth the wait for fans at Citi Field.

Luis Torrens tied the game at 1-1 with a bases-loaded single in his first at-bat of the season, but New York couldn't find a way to get another run in the frame.

The Pirates took a 2-1 lead in the top of the 11th inning, setting the stage for a walk-off win.

Luis Robert Jr. stepped up and became the hero, launching a three-run home run to left field to give the Mets a 4-2 win in 11 innings.

It's Robert's first HR with his new team, his fourth career walk-off, and second career walk-off home run.

 

LA PANTERA ARRIVES IN QUEENS.

LUIS ROBERT JR. WITH A WALK-OFF HOME RUN!!!! pic.twitter.com/qJ2JbnRVL9

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 28, 2026

"LUIS ROBERT JR. WITH A WALK-OFF THREE-RUN HOMER IN THE BOTTOM OF THE 11TH!"

Gary, Keith and Ron on the call for Luis Robert Jr.'s walk-off home run! 🎙️ pic.twitter.com/1zHHIrI4PH

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 29, 2026

LUIS TORRENS TIES THE GAME IN THE 10TH! pic.twitter.com/hHMl8vEjfl

— SNY (@SNYtv) March 28, 2026

The Orioles unveiled a 2026 slogan, to much self-paid fanfare, that says: Fly Different. Setting aside any grammatical quibbles with this particular slogan or motto, if the team is going to live up to it, they are going to have to do something better than what happened last year, whether this is to be described as different or differently. Their main problem two games into the season is that they are flying same. This continued on Saturday afternoon against the Twins as the O’s lost a 4-1 game for their first setback of 2026.

The most important thing there is to say about this game is that Orioles batters struck out 16 times. That’s twice as many strikeouts as they had in their Opening Day victory over Minnesota. Despite out-hitting the Twins, 5-4, the Orioles had just one hit with runners in scoring position and they ended up leaving a total of 11 men on base. The first seven spots in the starting lineup combined for just one hit in the game. All of these things create a tough environment to get a win, since they pretty much demand that everything else will go perfectly.

Saturday’s Orioles starting pitcher, Kyle Bradish, was not perfectly. We all want Bradish to be able to pick up where he left off from the 2023 season, before Tommy John surgery and rehab interrupted his career. In six starts after coming back last year, he showed that he might be able to do so. That did not continue on into today.

Bradish was not able to complete five innings in his first start of the season. He lost command of his elevated fastball as the game went along and it seemed that he was losing velocity as well. Only in time can we know if these are continual trends of concern. Bradish’s struggle was encapsulated when he allowed a two-run home run to Twins #8 hitter Royce Lewis. Don’t blow it against the #8 hitter! And yet, here we are. These two runs were the decisive ones in the game, and the only earned runs allowed by Bradish on the day.

There was also an unearned run against Bradish. This one was much less his fault. It started with Byron Buxton beating out a ground ball for an infield single. Jeremiah Jackson’s throw from the shortstop side of second base was initially ruled to be an out but overturned on replay. Buxton advanced to second base on a fly ball, showing the kind of disrespect a fast runner can afford to show Colton Cowser, who has not demonstrated accuracy with his arm.

Buxton made it to third base when Adley Rutschman attempted a back pick at second base and ended up throwing the ball into Buxton’s helmet. That was dumb. It cost the Orioles on the very next batter, when the speedy Buxton was able to score on a not-particularly-deep flyout to left field. This was the first Twins run of the game and erased what had been a 1-0 Orioles lead. Earlier in the game, the team cashed in on back-to-back hits by Cowser and Jackson to score the game’s first run. For the Orioles offense, this proved to be the only run.

When the Orioles offense largely struggled on Opening Day, that was, at least, against Joe Ryan, a guy who was pretty good a year ago. That easy excuse is not available for the Saturday loss. Minnesota’s Taj Bradley dropped a 5.05 ERA in the 2025 season and brought a 4.86 career ERA into the game. The O’s did a solid job early in the game of pushing up Bradley’s pitch count, and although they didn’t have much to show for it, and indeed struck out against him nine times, they chased him after only 4.1 innings.

Often, getting the starter out before the fifth inning is step one towards a good outcome. Unfortunately, this involves successfully executing later steps by doing good things against a team’s bullpen. The Orioles could not manage to do this. They had two hits for the rest of the game after Minnesota’s bullpen got involved. That sucks.

If you want to find a silver lining from the loss, that could be found in the major league debut of reliever Anthony Nunez. Acquired from the Mets last July, Nunez probably only made the Opening Day roster due to the injuries to Keegan Akin and Andrew Kittredge. Nunez looked great in the losing effort, pitching for two perfect innings while striking out three batters. I think that’s the first sign, but not the last, that he is ticketed for eventual higher-leverage innings.

With the press conference announcing Shane Baz’s contract extension earlier on Saturday drawing apparently the entire Orioles roster, this could have been a great chance for a fun win to leave everybody feeling good about the direction of the franchise. Instead, the Orioles turned in the kind of loss that they have authored all too many times since around the All-Star Break in the 2024 season.

It’s only one game out of 162, and it only feels so important because it is 50% of the games so far. But even in the one game that the Orioles won, the offense didn’t do much to make anybody feel like the problems have been solved.

Even so, the Orioles can get a season-opening series win on Sunday afternoon starting at a scheduled 1:35 Eastern. That will depend on Baz making a strong first impression on the organization after signing his new contract extension, and probably also on the offense doing something other than stinking against Twins #3 starter Bailey Ober. At least they aren’t the Giants, who got shut out two games in a row to start the season. That doesn’t make me feel much better.

The Texas Rangers scored five runs while the Philadelphia Phillies scored four runs in ten innings.

Never a doubt, right? Ha ha ha…

Corey Seager homered off Aaron Nola. So too did Jake Burger. That was a few hours ago. Feels like weeks.

Then Rangers got a nice spot start from the other other Jacob, Jacob Latz, after Jacob deGrom couldn’t pitch because he’s 38 years old and a strange pillow in a strange land can wreck your day.

Then Latz and four relievers held the Phillies to just one hit through two outs in the ninth inning.

Then Burger dropped his second popup on a play that would have ended the game with Texas enjoying a shutout.

Then former Rangers Adolis Garcia doubled in a run.

Then the Phillies tied it off Chris Martin.

Then the Rangers scored two runs in the tenth after being held off the board since the third inning.

Then someone I don’t think I’ve ever heard of in my life named Tyler Alexander squeaked through the tenth allowing just one run and the Rangers won a game that can only be described as peak Texas Rangers Baseball (TM).

I wonder if MLB knows it’s like 80 degrees in Arlington tomorrow and the Rangers have a retractable roof stadium.

Anyway, with the win, the Rangers avoided their first 0-2 start to begin a season since losing their first two games in Toronto back in 2022.

Player of the Game: Andrew McCutchen driving in Wyatt Langford for Texas’ non-Manfred Man run — proving to be the eventual winning run — in the tenth is now legally the only moment you’re allowed to remember from this game.

Up Next: The Rangers will close out their stint in Philly attempting to secure a series win in their first set of the year with LHP MacKenzie Gore expected to make his debut with Texas opposite LHP Jesús Luzardo for Philadelphia.

The lunch time first pitch from Citizens Bank Park is scheduled for 12:35 pm CT and you can watch it on the Rangers Sports Network.

After eight innings of struggling to muster consistent at-bats against a variety of Texas Rangers pitchers, they woke up in the ninth because the final three outs are always the hardest ones to get.

With a three-nothing Rangers lead heading into the ninth, the Phillies had Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, and Alec Bohm due up against left-hander Robert Garcia. Things looked even bleaker when Schwarber struck out looking and it didn’t feel better when Harper grounded a changeup to third baseman Josh Jung for out number two.

But there are 27 outs in baseball, not 26 and sometimes all a baseball team needs is some luck to start a rally. Bohm caught a changeup off the end of his bat that flared right in front of Nimmo for a two out single.

With Garcia still in the game, Rob Thomson called for Edmundo Sosa to hit for Bryson Stott to try and start a rally. Garcia missed his first three pitches outside of the strike zone but located a fastball to make it three and one. Sosa then geared up to swing no matter what but got a slider instead of the fastball he was hoping for. After fouling off two more sliders, he spat on an uncompetitive changeup to work a walk.

Chris Martin rushed in from the bullpen to face Adolis Garcia, who had the chance to make his mark against the team that non-tendered him in November.

The hardest out to get in baseball is the last one. Martin didn’t throw a great first pitch cutter over the middle of the plate but Garcia hit a mile-high pop-up. The game should be over but Jake Burger struggled to kind it for the second time of the day, neither of them even hitting his first base mitt.

With the count one and two, Garcia broke his bat on a hanging changeup but it was perfectly placed down the left field line for a one-run double that put two more runners in scoring position. Brandon Marsh slapped a two-strike changeup right past second baseman Josh Smith to force the game to extras.

Jhoan Duran came in for the tenth to try and keep the game tied with the ghost runner on second base. He got unlucky when Wyatt Langford hit a bloop shot right in front of Garcia for a knock but he spiked a curveball that went from the dirt to JT Realmuto’s face and past him for Brandon Nimmo to score.

With two outs, Andrew McCutchen, normally a short side platoon partner at this stage of his career, pulled a fastball right past a diving Trea Turner that make the game 5-3.

The Phillies once again had to claw back against a shaky bullpen. Otto Kemp hit for Justin Crawford with the left-hander Tyler Alexander on the mound, he took a pitch to his legs and walked down to first. It just wasn’t meant to be, however, Turner hit a pop-up, Schwarber went down looking right after missing a challenge, and Alec Bohm hit a pop up after Bryce Harper singled to right.

The day started well for the Phillies when Jacob deGrom was scratched because of neck stiffness. The news got even better when it became official that Garrett Stubbs cleared waivers and is going to AAA with the Iron Pigs.

Aaron Nola got the start in the second game of the season to split left-handers Cristopher Sánchez and Jesus Luzardo in the rotation. After recording the first two outs of the game, Corey Seager got the fastball he likes to sit first pitch and crushed it.

Have no fear, Corey's here. #AllForTXpic.twitter.com/8UygVPHBTq

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) March 28, 2026

The Texas Rangers asked Jacob Latz to make an emergency start, likely not super stretched out, and to spend most of the game trying to mix and match the bullpen. The fastball sat roughly 92 mph today but he made it work because of how his slider worked against the Phillies’ left-handed hitters.

Kyle Schwarber went down swinging on one in the first and Brandon Marsh was just browsing in the second. Phillies hitters struggled to pick up his arsenal through four innings and Skip Schumaker pulled Latz right when his stuff and command started to diminish.

Aaron Nola’s command looked shaky at times but he was able to pitch around two walks in the second. The third inning is where troubled turned into results for the Rangers offense. Brandon Nimmo singled to open the inning then Jake Burger pulled a curveball barely down the left field line for a homer that might’ve put a dent in the foul pole.

Pummeled off the pole! #AllForTXpic.twitter.com/2jRmOD1kAi

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) March 28, 2026

It could’ve been worse for Nola. Wyatt Langford crushed a fastball right before that homer that is almost always an extra base hit. Justin Crawford read the 107 mph flyball like a book and timed his jump perfectly to haul in a fantastic grab.

Crawford has made a good first impression with the Phillies, picking up two hits on opening day, working a walk, and making that grab today.

Aaron Nola finished the day with five innings, striking out seven, and allowing three runs on two homers. There were some positives, he sat 90-93 for most of the day, which seems solid for him given the weather. He generated five whiffs with both his four-seam fastball and curveball. Nola will always struggle with the home run ball but there was some good in his outing.

There are 160 games to go, at least 1440 innings to play. There is a lot of baseball to play and hopefully most it isn’t as stressful as today.