Just inside of five hours after the first pitch was thrown by Vladimir Gutierrez on Monday night in Cincinnati, Kevin Pillar hit a three-run run shot in the top of the 11th inning to put the Mets up 14-10 and separate themselves enough to secure a thrilling 15-11 win over the Reds.
The thing is, Pillar wasn’t expected to play Monday night. In fact, a lot of guys who got in weren’t, considering Pillar was the last man off the bench — and yet, he had the biggest hit of the night.
“I keep using the quote that ‘we’re built for this’ and I think today was a perfect example,” Pillar said after the game. “We went through every single guy on the bench. I was the last guy off the bench, we had two new pitchers brought up today. … no one flinched.
“We didn’t play very good baseball early on, we shot ourselves in the foot. But we picked each other up, guys that made mistakes in the field came up and contributed when their turn came up in the lineup. No one pointed fingers. … guys picked each other up. That’s what this team’s about, that’s what we’ve been about all year.”
In total, 14 players took at least one at-bat, while seven pitchers threw in the game. Of the 14 batters who took at-bats, a whopping six hit home runs — with Michael Conforto knocking out two.
Trevor May, who pitched in relief in the previous two games, was brought in for the save anyway in the 11th. He got the final two outs of the game, including a strikeout to end it.
Dave Jauss, who stepped in as the acting manager for a suspended Luis Rojas on Monday night, said the camaraderie and culture inside the clubhouse and front office is what helps the team get wins like this one.
“From the front office, down to the manager, down to the coaching staff, and trainers and then the players, that clubhouse, that dugout, that group of people have a bond that they are together,” Jauss said. “They’ve showered this thing off already 25-30 minutes ago, so that’s a really special way to describe what our fans are watching on the field, but now they get a little look at as to what is going on.”
The Mets will be without Rojas again Tuesday, but the manager said before the game that “the group is special” enough to win games through just about any distraction they’ve faced this season.
“That’s part of the culture that just makes it so fun to show up and play with this group of guys,” said James McCann, who came off the bench and went 2-for-3 with a home run.