Starling Marte plays hero in extras as Mets escape with walk-off win over Nationals

Just when the Mets needed another hero, Starling Marte stepped to the plate in the 10th inning Monday night and became that guy.

With Francisco Lindor’s lower back still aching — but maybe not as much as the Mets lineup — Marte smacked a walk-off RBI single that gave his team a 2-1 victory over the Nationals at Citi Field.

The Mets, who snapped a two-game skid, have scored only three runs over their last 24 innings since Saturday.

The drought has come with Lindor sidelined for all but one plate appearance during that stretch (he led off Sunday’s game in Philadelphia with a single, and was removed in the second inning with back discomfort).

Lindor before Monday’s game placed his expected remaining absence from the lineup at 2-5 days.

“Having a player like Lindor go out who is a key piece of this team, it hurts,” Marte said through an interpreter after the Mets recorded their 11th walk-off victory this season, which is tied with the Giants for first in MLB. “But at the same time we have to go out and do our job because he’s been putting this team on his shoulders.”

The Mets, who moved one game ahead of Atlanta in the race for the NL’s third wild card (and within one length of Arizona for the second spot), got the most from their six hits on this night.

The party was on when Marte, in his second plate appearance of the game, delivered against Jacob Barnes to score the automatic runner.

Marte was absent from the starting lineup for two straight days after he was drilled in the left forearm by a pitch on Saturday.

“With Lindor not in the lineup, guys are going to have to continue to step up and this is a perfect example,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Marte got drilled the other day and he was pretty sore, and then watching him go through the pregame routine he was like, ‘I am going to be a player for you.’ … This is a guy who has been a pretty good player in this league for a long time and when he’s healthy, when he’s feeling good, he’s dangerous.”

Jose Iglesias’ RBI single in the eighth tied it 1-1 and brought hope to the small crowd of 21,694 that a comeback win was looming.

Tyrone Taylor’s double started the rally and after Francisco Alvarez’s infield single was overturned into an out, the pinch hitter Marte grounded out on reliever Derek Law’s first pitch.

Iglesias followed with a shot off Law’s glove that became an infield RBI single.

“There were two really big important parts of the game,” Marte said. “It was that first at-bat that I took where I didn’t have success and Iglesias came in and did the job. And that’s what he’s been doing since he’s been here.

“And then in that second at-bat for me I was able to get a good swing there and have success and help the team win.”

The Nationals put the go-ahead run on third base against Edwin Diaz in the ninth inning before the right-hander got Jose Tena to flail at a slider for strike three for the third out.

Diaz’s shutout inning came after Jose Butto struck out the side in the eighth and before Reed Garrett worked a scoreless 10th.

Sean Manaea gave the Mets a chance with seven strong innings in which he allowed one run on four hits and one walk with six strikeouts.

It was a second straight outing that ended in a no-decision for Manaea following superb pitching.

Last Wednesday in Toronto he allowed only one run over 6 ²/₃ innings, but the Mets were no-hit into the ninth before Lindor homered leading off the inning and the team rallied for a victory.

On this night, Tena’s RBI single in the fourth gave the Nationals a 1-0 lead.

Juan Yepez doubled leading off the inning before Tena delivered with one out — he was caught stealing second base in an Alvarez-Alvarez putout (Francisco to Eddy).

The Mets didn’t get their first baserunner until the fourth on Iglesias’ leadoff single (extending his hitting streak to 10 games).

Pete Alonso reached on an infield single and Brandon Nimmo walked to load the bases, but Mark Vientos was retired on a dribbler toward the third base line that the pitcher Jake Irvin fielded and fired to first for the out.

Irvin celebrated with his head bobbing as he left the field.

The Mets got a defensive gem from the second baseman Alvarez in the third, when he fielded Dylan Crews’ grounder and glove-flipped the ball to Iglesias at second base for a force out.

The Nationals had two singles in the inning, but didn’t score.

“On a night that was hard for us offensively we found a way,” Mendoza said. “That’s a good sign we continue to do that, especially after the past couple of games where we fought really hard and didn’t get it done.”