In what has become a lost season, the Mets are not playing for much apart from their future.
DJ Stewart is playing as if he belongs in that vision.
The Mets’ best surprise of the second half came through again, blasting a pair of home runs and sacrificing his body both for a gutsy catch and a painful walk-off, hit-by-pitch.
When the DJ Stewart Game was over, the Mets had stolen a 6-5 win from the Rangers in front of 23,849 at Citi Field on Wednesday.
The Mets had blown an early three-run lead, were down two in the eighth and roared back in the inning with Stewart’s second home run.
They sent the game into a 10th inning and loaded the bases against Aroldis Chapman, who hit Stewart with a 96 mph fastball to give the Mets a welt and a win.
The Mets (61-73) avoided the sweep and won for just a second time in their past eight games.
They begin a three-game set with the Mariners on Friday that will include larger rosters and more interesting prospects to watch.
Stewart, a first-round pick of Buck Showalter’s Orioles in 2015, is mounting an argument that he is a late-blooming prospect worth watching, too.
The slugger went back-to-back with Daniel Vogelbach in a three-run second inning that gave the Mets an edge they would slowly give back.
After strong work from starter Denyi Reyes (5 ¹/₃ innings, two runs, the second run coming around to score after he left), Sean Reid-Foley struggled before Brooks Raley and Adam Ottavino combined to allow three runs in the top of the eighth.
The Mets were down two when Stewart blasted a two-run shot off Jose LeClerc, which set the table for the ninth and 10-inning dramatics — which started with a catch.
In the top of the ninth, Marcus Semien’s potentially go-ahead, RBI double chased Stewart back to the right-field wall, where Stewart did not let up. He crashed into the wall as he made the catch, preserving the tie game and prompting “DJ Stewart” chants from a crowd that did not know his name two months ago.
Stewart, a non-roster invite to spring training who hit well at Triple-A Syracuse, has pummeled eight home runs in his past 13 games. His OPS is up to 1.008.
In sporadic time with Baltimore over the past five seasons, Stewart hit .213 with 26 home runs in 195 games.
The Orioles let him walk, and Billy Eppler’s Mets sought a depth option in the corner outfield.
Did they find something more significant? Weirder things have happened with the 2023 Mets.