Wilmer Flores Steals the Show

On a day when the Mets make a huge trade, when Travis d’Arnaud returned, when Matt Harvey was robbed of a win in part because of what is hopefully the end of the team’s offense ineptitude, Wilmer Flores stole the show. Is there any better story in all of baseball?

Flores hit a home run in the bottom of the 12th inning to win the game for the Mets Friday night, taking the first game of this crucial series with the Nationals. One of the biggest hits of the season comes two days after the aborted trade for Carlos Gomez and Flores crying on the field after learning he was part of deal.

“You can’t write that,” manager Terry Collins said after the game. “Can it happen at a better time to a better person and in a bigger situation than that? We’re all so thrilled for him. It’s unbelievable.”

Harvey took a perfect game into the sixth inning and was hanging on to a precarious 1-0 lead when he faltered in the eighth, allowing a run to tie the score. Harvey went 7.2 innings, allowing the one run on five hits, with nine strikeouts and no walks. With Yoenis Cespedes due today, perhaps this is the last no-decision like this for the Mets young starters.

It looked like another crushing loss was in the cards until Flores’s heroics. He is now the toast of New York, as the fans cheered his every move, even before the homer.

“It felt great. I couldn’t be happier,” Flores said.

It was one of those moments that will go down in Mets infamy.

They are now two games behind the Nationals with two more games in this series. You do the math.