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For weeks on end, the Mets have been given lemons and we made sour faces at the way they played, little lemonade in sight. On Monday night, the Mets were given Angels. They and we chowed down on Angel food cake. It wound up being a much sweeter experience.

Not at first. The Mets had to fall behind early. As proven Sunday, it’s not necessarily so bad to let the other team build a lead and a false sense of security. It’s probably bad that the Angels from Anaheim by way of Los Angeles built a large lead of 4-0 by the third inning and that it was constructed against Kodai Senga. Senga is one of the pillars of our rotation. When Kodai crumbles, it would figure we’re all in trouble.

But that’s why we’ve got Kevin Herget. I assume that’s why we’ve got Kevin Herget. FYI, Kevin Herget is back with the Mets. FYI, Kevin Herget was once with the Mets, for one game in late April. Then he was shuffled off the active roster so the Mets could add Brandon Waddell. Waddell would be optioned to add Genesis Cabrera. Cabrera would be DFA’d so Waddell could be recalled again, by which time Herget was pitching for the Braves (once).

Got all that? Don’t worry if you don’t. When it comes to relievers you’ve probably forgotten were ever here, the Mets will always make more…or bring a couple back.

On the same day the Mets re-signed Rico Garcia, who’s not yet on the active roster but might very well bump from it someone like Kevin Herget or perhaps Kevin Herget himself, Kevin Herget pitched for the Mets, therefore making Kevin Herget the 59th Recidivist Met overall. A Recidivist Met is a Met who played for us; left to play for somebody else; and returned to play for us anew. Emotional homecomings are a part of Recidivist Mets lore: Tom Seaver and Rusty Staub spring to mind immediately; Lee Mazzilli and Hubie Brooks trail right behind. A couple of weeks ago, Travis Jankowski was glad to be back. He’s gone again. It sometimes works that way. Amid 2024’s version of the bullpen shuffle, we brought in Michael Tonkin and Yohan Ramirez; got rid of Michael Tonkin and Yohan Ramirez; and brought back Michael Tonkin and Yohan Ramirez. Their respective interim absences weren’t much longer than their combined multiple tenures. We said hello, goodbye, hello again, and goodbye for good to both relievers before the middle of May.

The Kevin Herget Mets story may have very well peaked on Monday night. If so, nice apogee for the latest Mr. Prodigal. Herget righted the ship Senga steered astray, pitching scoreless ball in the fourth and the fifth, leaving with one out and one on in the sixth, no damage done. While Kevin was stabilizing the situation, Brett Baty was improving it, socking a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth. Chris Devenski, who by dint of being recalled on July 4 and not being sent down since may be the second-longest tenured Met reliever of all time (I’ll have to check) gave up a run in the seventh, but the game was still within reach at 5-2.

The Angels’ conceivably reachable lead bolstered my confidence. The Mets staying within striking range after not falling hopelessly off a game’s competitive map when they very well could have may provide a more promising platform for victory than an early one- or two-run lead that isn’t added to ASAP. Urgency can be enigmatic. The Mets ahead tend to nod off. The Mets not dead are capable of livening up. And, if we allow ourselves a moment to not pin the Mets’ fate solely on the Mets, the Mets were playing the Angels. There was some “there for the taking” ripening in evidence. There is a reason the Los Angeles Angels rarely rise to heaven.

Senses of what might happen are swell, but an actual comeback is what you really want. From down 5-2 and at last eliminating Angel starter Tyler Anderson with two on with nobody out in the seventh, the Mets got to coming back in earnest. Brandon Nimmo stood in the right place, in the path of a Reid Detmers delivery, thus getting dinged and loading the bases. Francisco Lindor, whose last hit coincides with the last hit featuring the Temptations probably (I’ll have to check on that one, too) bounced to short but ran like he had ten fully intact toes to beat out a double play. The Mets had their third run, and they had runners on first and third. Then they had runners on second and third, because Lindor liked running so much, he took second uncontested while the Angels thought ethereal thoughts.

What a setup for Juan Soto, who’s hit harder balls, but few better placed. This one, in the seventh, zipped straight up an unoccupied middle, scoring two, including Lindor, who’d placed himself on second with that no-biggie steal. Nice planning. Nice tie.

At 5-5 heading to the eighth, it was time to consider the bullpen again. Every bullpen, certainly every Met bullpen, has its transients and it has its staples. This one has Brooks Raley, who belongs in the latter cohort, but you wouldn’t know it by his recent lack of game logs. While some of us devoted our ruminations to David Wright, Brooks (same name The Captain gave his son) suddenly appeared as if from out of nowhere on Saturday afternoon,. Yet Raley really hadn’t been nowhere. He’d been recovering from Tommy John surgery in 2024; on the free agent market a little; then — to the surprise of those who take attendance to confirm who’s no longer in the Mets classroom and mark them permanently graduated from the hallowed halls Payson Tech, pending Recidivism — back in the organization. We were told Raley, one of the few bright spots of relentlessly dim 2023, was working his way back from his operation. Whenever he was good to go was great. It seemed folly to count on Brooks Raley to pitch for the Mets this season.

Except we kept getting reports that his track was fast, his progress was apace, and would you look at that? Brooks Raley pitches for the Mets again. He’s not a Recidivist Met, because he never technically went anywhere else, but he sure appears to have returned from somewhere. A lefty arm we can count down is like something that falls out of the sky but not on our head. In the eighth on Monday night at Citi Field, Raley landed on the mound and threw a scoreless inning to keep things tied at five.

So now we’d witnessed the comeback of Kevin Herget and were reminded of the comeback from Brooks Raley. Yet for the Mets to come back not only in this game but to what we wish to believe they are, they needed Francisco Alvarez to come back. On Monday, the catcher we’ve been waiting to achieve his presumed destiny returned from a month in the minors. His presumed destiny was stardom in the majors. Had we not seen it in the distance, maybe we’d have signed JT Realmuto instead of James McCann in the first minutes of Steve Cohen’s ownership. No need for a star catcher, we’re raising one of our own. Alvy approached his projected heights when he homered like crazy to light up the less dark parts of 2023. He regressed offensively in 2024, but he was part of a playoff push, so we didn’t dwell on the youngster’s shortcomings. In 2025, we couldn’t ignore them. Nor could Mets management, thus the Summer in Syracuse program, in which the ballclub sponsors a deserving kid from the city and sends him to experience a taste of farm life whether he wanted it or not.

Francisco seemed to have made the most of it, judging by several facets of his game Monday night, one of which was his ability to work a walk to lead off the home seventh ahead of those vital Lindor and Soto contributions; another of which was a caught stealing he worked with his shortstop in the top of the seventh; and still another of which was the tag he placed on Mike Trout to limit an accumulation of Angel insurance runs. This was in the seventh as well, Baty throwing, Alvarez catching, Trout sliding nowhere near the plate, perhaps to protect his previously injured knee. About as bad a fundamental play as I’ve ever seen a surefire Hall of Famer make, but somebody had to tag him, and young Francisco took care of that detail.

Alvarez had more work to do in the eighth. Following Baty’s one-out walk, Alvy lined a ball to the right field wall. Chris Taylor didn’t defend it as much as attempt to withstand its presence in his midst. It may or may not have been a catchable ball. Taylor opted to not find out. It appeared catchable enough that Baty made it only as far as third. Alvarez, meanwhile, chugged to second, which one can assume he enjoyed a whole lot more than being in Syracuse.

What happened next continued to indicate good things can happen when a) you put the bat on the ball and b) you hit it toward the Angels. Ronny Mauricio produced a fielder’s choice grounder to third. Yoan Moncada choice was to throw it wide of home. Logan O’Hoppe choice was to drop it. Bret slid in safely and untouched to push the Mets in front. Nimmo then made contact of his own, a sac fly to right that paved a glide path for Alvarez to score. It was 7-5, Edwin Diaz was available, and Edwin Diaz was on, striking out the side for his twentieth save and the Mets’ second consecutive comeback victory.

Mets take their inspiration where they can get it.

Afterwards, the players gathered around the clubhouse television to watch an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies just to get to the song that plays over the end credits, specifically the line where Jerry Scoggins invites everybody watching, “Y’all come back now, y’ hear?” (That’s one more detail I’ll have to check on, but based on these past two games, it sure seems true.)