NEW YORK — Even when these Mets win, they lose.
They finally put an end on Wednesday to their excruciating 12-game losing streak with a 3–2 victory over the Twins, but on the day left fielder Juan Soto returned from right calf tightness, shortstop Francisco Lindor departed with left calf tightness. He is expected to undergo an MRI on Thursday.
The intrepid 32,665 in the stands celebrated the win like the club had won the World Series, filming on their phones and hugging strangers, but the Mets’ joy was muted as they contemplated the potential of another devastating loss.
“We lost Soto and we had a hard time,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “Now we could be dealing with losing another really good player, and we gotta figure it out. We gotta find a way.”
That way will have to include pitching performances such as the ones the Mets received on Wednesday. Clay Holmes, in his second year as a starter, finished the seventh inning for the third time in his career. After back-to-back bullpen blowups, Brooks Raley and Luke Weaver combined to survive the final two frames.
Luke Weaver's 3Ks in the 9th pic.twitter.com/UDHzoWHT9Q
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 23, 2026
After he struck out Byron Buxton to end it, Weaver choked up and gazed at the sky. “A sigh of relief,” he said, adding, “It’s not very often you have such a talented team where everything just doesn’t click in the right way. It seems quite impossible, but we made it possible.”
They nearly Metsed this one up, too. All throughout this stretch, the Mets have talked about enduring it together, and indeed, every time a goat emerged on Wednesday, one of his teammates picked him up by doing something even worse. In the fourth, Luis Robert Jr. made an unspeakably bad throw from center field to cost a run—his second in two games. In the sixth, Mark Vientos ran through a stop sign to make the third out at home plate. And in the eighth, Soto got himself picked off first base.
But then things started to go right. The next batter, Brett Baty, drew a walk for the third time this season and the second time in three innings. Francisco Alvarez drew another. And Vientos slapped a single into shallow right field to give the Mets a lead they would hold.
Lineup change paid immediate, if limited, dividends
Mendoza was starting to run out of ways to key the lineup, which had scored 22 runs in 12 games. He took another stab at the batting order on Wednesday, hitting Bichette first—his third leadoff hitter in as many games. Ideally, Mendoza said, he prefers stability: nine guys who come to the ballpark each day and don’t even have to check the lineup. But “given the circumstances right now,” he said, “I’m gonna continue to see what’s best for the team.”
At first, he looked like a genius. Bichette doubled to lead off the game and Soto moved him to third with a long flyout. (Mets fans, so desperate for an opportunity to cheer that they serenaded reliever Austin Warren with MVP chants on Tuesday when he successfully recorded three straight outs, gave Soto a standing ovation.) Robert struck out. And then, miraculously, something went right: Lindor poked a slider just over the third-base bag and beat the throw. Bichette jogged home. It was only the fourth time since the losing streak started that the Mets scored a run in the first.
The Twins tied it in the fourth, when Robert’s throw home was halfway up the third-base line. New York pulled back ahead an inning later, when an Alvarez double sent Lindor scampering from first, but he pulled up and winced as he rounded third, slowing enough that the throw almost beat him. He trudged into the dugout, down the tunnel and did not return to the game.
The timing is almost impossibly bad. Lindor, a famously slow starter, was hitting .411 over the last five games, and with Soto back, the team had a chance to get into an offensive rhythm. A defensive rhythm might be even harder to find, given that all the other infielders were already playing out of position: Vientos, really a third baseman, at first base while Jorge Polanco, really a second baseman, is on the injured list with a right wrist contusion; Semien, really a shortstop, at second; and Bichette, also really a shortstop, at third. Now Bichette will rotate back to short and Vientos and Baty will have to cover third and first. And they will have to do it all while trying to climb out of the cellar, where they still reside at 8–16.
As for what comes next, Weaver tried not to get ahead of himself. “We’re gonna see what tomorrow brings,” he said. He meant it as a promise. With this Mets team, it almost felt like a threat.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Even the Mets’ Skid-Stopping Win Gave Them Little to Celebrate.
