Mets walk it off after former teammate, now with lowly White Sox, carves up lineup

NEW YORK — For a while, it looked like the Mets were going to get shut out by the lowly Chicago White Sox, baseball’s second-worst team.

Then, in the ninth inning, with the bases loaded and no outs, shortstop Francisco Lindor decided it was time to end the game.

Deep into the White Sox bullpen, after going 1-for-4 in the game, Lindor hit a sacrifice fly deep to right field to score the game-winning run.

“It was a great team win today,” Lindor said after the game.

Where was this version of Adrian Houser last season, when he was with the Mets?

In Monday’s 2-1 walk-off win, Mets batters were silent against their former teammate. Houser allowed just three hits in six scoreless innings on Monday. He even went on a run of retiring 16 straight batters, not allowing a hit between innings 2-5.

This was a far cry from the guy the Mets acquired, along with center fielder Tyrone Taylor from the Milwaukee Brewers before the 2024 season.

In 23 games (seven starts) with the Mets last season, Houser was 1-5 with a 5.84 ERA and 1.529 WHIP, both career-worsts.

Now, here he was, carving up his old teammates, a continuation from his last start, his first big league start since being let go by the Mets last July 31.

Houser hasn’t allowed a run in 12 innings during that span.

“He was really good,” Mendoza said. “He was able to maintain the velo ... He kept attacking. He didn’t shy away from contact.”

His first sign of trouble came on his third time around the Mets’ order. By then, after putting two runners on to start the seventh inning, White Sox manager Will Venable turned to his bullpen.

After reliever Brandon Eisert loaded the bases with two outs, he escaped trouble, striking Mets second baseman Jeff McNeil looking to end the inning.

Mets starter Clay Holmes was also effective, though he had to work out of trouble throughout the game. Holmes allowed one run on four hits and three walks over 5 2/3 innings, and left five White Sox runners stranded, forcing them to go 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

The fourth inning ended up being his downfall when he allowed a run to score. It started with a lead-off walk to former Yankees outfielder Mike Tauchman, who wound up on third after first baseman Miguel Vargas lined a double to center field.

The next batter sacrificed Tauchman home on a fly ball, giving the White Sox a 1-0 lead.

It wasn’t until Houser was removed from he game that the Mets started to threaten. In the eighth inning, after being stymied for most of the game, New York finally got a run across.

It started with a lead-off single by catcher Francisco Alvarez, who wound up on third after left fielder Brandon Nimmo‘s one-out single. Then, a Juan Soto sacrifice fly to left allowed Alvarez to even the score at one apiece.

“(Soto) knows, ‘I’ve got to get the ball in the air,’” Mendoza said of Soto’s thought process in his at-bat. “Not trying to do too much ... and he was able to get a good pitch, and execute.

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Manny Gómez may be reached at mgomez@njadvancemedia.com.