Mark Vientos saw to it that the Mets’ best starting pitching performance of the season meant something Sunday.
The Mets had floundered offensively for most of the afternoon, but Vientos with one 11th-inning jolt offered absolution, delivering a two-run walk-off homer in a 4-2 victory at Citi Field that prevented a Cardinals three-game sweep.
“It’s almost like a déjà vu moment,” said Vientos, who was swarmed by teammates at home plate and received a dousing. “I feel like I have lived that moment over and over in my head, so it was just like, ‘Let it go. Let all the energy out.’ ”
The Mets, down to their last strike, tied it 2-2 on Harrison Bader’s RBI single (the team’s first hit of the game in 16 at-bats with runners in scoring position).
Vientos — who arrived Saturday when Starling Marte was placed on the bereavement list — cleared the fence in right-center against Matthew Liberatore to end it.
Vientos entered the game in the ninth inning as a pinch hitter for Brett Baty and singled.
He fell behind 0-2 in the count in the 11th before blasting a sinker on the sixth pitch of his at-bat.
“I thought it could have been caught,” Vientos said. “But then I saw the exit velo on the board [105.8 mph] and was like, ‘Maybe it’s going to go.’ I know their center fielder plays a little deep, so I was iffy a little bit.”
Vientos competed for a job with the Mets in spring training, but was ultimately optioned to Triple-A Syracuse, with Baty receiving the third-base job and the path to DH at-bats blocked by J.D. Martinez’s arrival late in camp.
But the Mets saw flashes of the 24-year-old Vientos’ power in limited sample sizes over the previous two seasons.
“As the game progressed, knowing where they were bullpen-wise I told him to be ready because they have got a couple of lefties,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He was ready to go, so it’s a credit to him and it’s good to see.”
Mendoza was asked about Vientos’ chances of remaining in the major leagues beyond Marte’s return to the club on Tuesday.
“We’ll see,” Mendoza said. “But I am pretty sure he will be in the lineup [Monday].”
Vientos wasn’t interested in discussing the future.
“I’m enjoying this moment right now, we just won, and I am focused on that,” Vientos said.
Jose Quintana had the best outing by a Mets starting pitcher this season, limiting the Cardinals to one earned run on three hits with three strikeouts and one walk over eight innings.
No other Mets starting pitcher has worked even into the seventh this season.
The length and quality was needed by the Mets, who received subpar starts from Jose Butto and Adrian Houser in the first two games of this series.
Highlight-reel catches by Brendan Donovan in left field robbed the Mets of hits in the second, third and fourth innings.
In the second, Tyrone Taylor’s shot at 111 mph was snagged by the diving Donovan in medium left field.
The next inning Donovan dived on the warning track to deprive Tomas Nido of an extra-base hit. In the fourth, Taylor hit a shot to the left-center gap that Donovan caught on the run to conclude the inning.
Michael Siani’s squeeze bunt in the fifth pushed across Masyn Winn with the game’s first run. Winn doubled leading off the inning and advanced on a ground out before Siani’s bunt.
Baty mishandled the bunt, allowing Siani to reach first but he was left stranded at third after stealing second.
Francisco Lindor’s homer leading off the bottom of the sixth tied it 1-1.
The blast was Lindor’s fourth in his last nine games and occurred amid a 1-for-10 skid in this series. Lindor jumped on a full-count sinker from Lance Lynn and cleared the fence in left-center.
The scoring ceased until the 11th inning, when Reed Garrett, in his second inning of relief, surrendered a go-ahead single to Donovan. Edwin Diaz had helped keep the game at 1-1 with a perfect ninth.
“It was a great win because there was a lot going on during that game,” Mendoza said.
