Mets top Marlins in dramatic 11-inning win to take series

MIAMI — At long last, the Mets are headed home — on a high note, at that.

Their season-opening road trip ended Wednesday evening with a come-from-behind 6-5, 11-inning win over the Marlins.

Huascar Brazoban entering for the final two outs with the potential tying run at scoring position was the last in a series of dramatic late-inning events, following Pete Alonso’s two-out, two-strike, three-run home run in the eighth to create a tie and the Mets throwing out a runner at the plate in each of the bottom of the eighth and 10th to preserve that tie.

After the Mets scored a pair of runs in the top of the 11th, manager Carlos Mendoza called on lefthander Danny Young. Instead, he allowed two of three batters to reach base, forcing Brazoban into the game.

Brazoban struck out Otto Lopez looking to record his first career save.

The Mets escaped with a series victory and 3-3 record in the first week of the baseball new year. They will host the Blue Jays in their home opener at 3 p.m. Friday.

For most of the game, the Mets battled a pair on undesirable trends: an offense prone to going quiet and a defense prone to mishaps, a combo that has set them up for failure several times already this season.

The Mets had at least four ugly defensive moments, three of which came on run-scoring plays. Mark Vientos’ throwing error on a would-be play at the plate put the Marlins on top in the third. In the seventh, he fielded Otto Lopez’s barely fair bouncer, looked home and threw to first, late, on what was ruled an RBI single — not so much a rulebook error as it was an awkward sequence. Moments later, Juan Soto booted Nick Fortes’ single, eliminating any chance he had of throwing Lopez out at the plate.

Alonso’s blast off Calvin Faucher changed the tenor of the game — and maybe the entire road trip. With the Mets at risk of blowing another scoring opportunity, Alonso got ahold of a 96-mph fastball on the outer edge of the strike zone, the ninth pitch of the at-bat, and lined it over the centerfield wall.

The game remained knotted until the 11th, when Jesse Winker drew a bases-loaded walk against Xzavion Curry. The Mets plated another run when Xavier Edwards booted Vientos’ grounder to shortstop.

Into the middle innings, righthander Clay Holmes (4 2/3 innings, two runs, one earned) and Miami righthander Connor Gillispie (five innings, one run) were about equals.

Holmes’ outing was similar to his season debut in Houston: lots of contact and baserunners, minimal actual scoring. He has failed to finish five innings in both of his first two starts since converting form his longtime role as a reliever.

The 27-year-old rookie Gillispie — not to be confused with Conor Gillaspie, the infielder who homered off Jeurys Familia to beat the Mets in the 2016 NL Wild Card game — allowed a run in the first inning and none after that. He struck out six and walked none.

Backup catcher Hayden Senger, drawing his first start, collected his first major-league hit with a double off Gillispie in the fifth inning.