Bingo cards are all the invocation rage these days, as in “I didn’t have that on my bingo card!” serving as a response indicating a state of surprise in reaction to whatever unforeseen event has just transpired in this wacky world of ours. It’s an inviting metaphor if not always apt, yet let’s go with it as our leitmotif of the moment.
Let’s say we were issued a Mets-themed bingo card where under “B,” as in Batting, we find a box inscribed, “MJ Melendez [1] pinch-hitting for Eric Wagaman [2], who was announced as pinch-hitter for designated hitter Jared Young [3].” Put aside the size that box would have to be to fit all that information. Had that bingo card fallen into our possession prior to Opening Day, we would have scanned it for boxes more likely to be filled in during the season ahead. We didn’t know what kind of season it was going to be.
It turned out to be the 2026 season. Thus, in the bottom of the seventh on Friday night at Citi Field, Carlos Mendoza indeed pinch-hit righty Wagaman for lefty Young because lefty Cade Gibson was pitching for the Marlins in relief of righty Max Meyer. With Mendy having made his move, Miami skipper Clayton McCullough countered, removing Gibson and inserting righty Calvin Faucher to face Wagaman. McCullough could do that because Gibson had faced his required minimum of three batters. Two — Bo Bichette (walk) and Juan Soto (single that sent Bichette to third) — had reached base, creating the kind of opportunity that nudges managers into making moves and countermoves. You might call the engagement between Mendoza and McCullough a chess match, but then you’d be mixing metaphors.
But it might be more apt, as Mendy proceeded to make another move: Melendez for Wagaman. Wagaman homered just the other night. Melendez has been mostly frigid since a warm start. Still, lefties face righties most of the time if possible. It was possible here. Melendez validated the chess match within the bingo game by effectively putting the ‘B’ in RBI, driving Faucher’s fourth pitch to left field, amply deep for a sacrifice fly to score Bichette and extend the Mets’ lead to 7-5.
Great, we had our B. What about the rest of what we needed?
Under I, our Bingo card had “I see the Mets have gotten off the schneid quite quickly this evening, pushing four runs across the plate in the very first inning, perhaps setting the stage for a rare easy win.”
Under N, we became eligible to circle, “Nope, Freddy Peralta [4] isn’t going to make this easy, instead struggling to get only as deep as two outs in the fifth as starting pitcher, allowing the Marlins to score four runs, which are still fewer than the six the Mets have at this point, but wow, Peralta and his 94 pitches over four-and-two-thirds are hardly the epitome of efficiency.”
Under G, maybe as a sign these bingo cards were printed during Spring Training, we had, “Gads, if it’s 7-7 at the end of nine, with both teams looking mostly like they’re here to get their work in — especially the myriad arms called in from the Mets bullpen to succeed Peralta — just call it a tie.” And, although it is late May, would have you been shocked to have seen Mendoza and McCullough make like it was mid-March in Port St. Lucie or Jupiter and wave to each other from their respective dugouts, the universal signal for “no need to trudge on like this any longer, the early bird special beckons.”
Under O, we already had “Oh wow, Mark Vientos [5]’s blast landed in the Left Field Landing or whatever that section is labeled as these days” from the third inning, but you know how it is with bingo. You need to have your rows and columns line up just so. What we needed was a box under O that read, “OH WOW! MJ MELENDEZ JUST SOCKED ONE ONTO THE SPONSORED SOFT DRINK BRANDING OPPORTUNITY!” Sure enough, that’s just what MJ the erstwhile PH turned DH did in the bottom of the tenth. Because it was the tenth, a fugazi runner was placed second before anybody batted, so what Melendez launched after Soto led off by flying out was a two-run homer to win the game, 9-7 [6]. All we needed was one run in order to manufacture an OH WOW! in that situation, and surely you’re familiar with the chant that ends with If Juan can’t do it, MJ can!
It had stayed 7-7 entering the home tenth, thanks to Austin Warren [7] preserving the tie in the top of the inning. Warren as bullpen best bet to come through in clutch situations also wouldn’t have been on our bingo card when the season began, no more than the previously invaluable Tobias Myers [8] becoming the reliever who gets shuffled down to the minors after a game where the starter doesn’t last and before a game that demands a “fresh arm” in reserve. Myers gave up the two-run homer in the eighth that made it 7-7, making his option more relevant than might have been forecast when the Mets acquired him alongside Peralta in January. But we’ve already proved how unreliable these hypothetical preprinted bingo cards can be as predictors of what will happen in this wacky world of ours.
First we shouted “MJ!” Then “BINGO!” Then the Mets collected their prize on our behalf, a modest streak constructed of two wins that could have just as easily been losses. Sometimes these games of chance work out to our satisfaction.