– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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NEW YORK — Mired in a summer-long slump at the plate and slowed down by an oblique injury that, when combined, jeopardized his position as the starting third baseman, Eduardo Escobar was confident that, before too long, he would again find the form that helped the New York Mets become one of the best single-season iterations of the orange and blue in franchise history.
With three swings of the bat on Wednesday, Escobar catapulted the Mets back into first place in the National League East, and the rest of his teammates catapulted him high in the air afterward as he enjoyed every second of his season-ending redemption.
Escobar drove in all five runs for the Mets, including singling home Francisco Lindor with the game-winning run in the 10th inning, as New York came from behind to defeat the Miami Marlins 5-4, a result that occurred just minutes after the Washington Nationals completed an extra-inning win against Atlanta. The Mets go into their three-game set in Atlanta with a one-game lead over the latter, and a win in at least one of the games would secure a season-series victory over Atlanta (the first tiebreaker is head-to-head) and head into the final series of the season against Washington, at home, with control of the division in their hands.
After not batting above .220 in any month after April, Escobar has saved his best of 2022 for last, as he is now batting .330 in the month of September, which includes a .379 on-base percentage and .638 slugging percentage. His 24 runs batted in this month are the third-most runs driven in this month in the majors, and the five he drove in tonight may be the ones that finally tilt the NL East race to the Mets favor for good.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Wednesday evening’s contest, with all photos taken by ALOST photographer Danny Suriel. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 38 pictures in total.
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