{"id":117014,"date":"2026-03-28T22:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T02:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=117014"},"modified":"2026-03-28T23:31:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T03:31:03","slug":"mets-hidden-advantage-behind-luis-robert-jr-walk-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/03\/28\/mets-hidden-advantage-behind-luis-robert-jr-walk-off\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hidden &#8216;Advantage&#8217; Behind Luis Robert Jr.&#8217;s Walk-Off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On a cold and windy day at Citi Field, <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/roberlu01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luis Robert Jr.<\/a> sent <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/03\/25\/new-york-mets-2026-bold-predictions-nl-east-soto-mvp\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Mets<\/a> fans home happy, hitting a walk-off three-run home run on Saturday&#8217;s 4-2 opening series clinching win against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the bottom of the 11th inning, finally ending a 3-hour, 22-minute game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 610px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBgjYMrf2E\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 3000px; aspect-ratio: 3000\/2000;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<h2>Mets&#8217; Hidden &#8216;Advantage&#8217; Comes to Light with Luis Robert Jr.&#8217;s Walk-Off<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With one swing in the 11th inning, Robert sent a ball deep into left-center field \u2014 and Mets fans into a frenzy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Facing Pirates left-hander <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/barcohu01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hunter Barco<\/a>, Robert jumped on a slider and drove it out for the walk-off, capping a game that had just been scoreless entering extra innings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the real story started one batter before.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/12\/13\/mets-sign-jorge-polanco-two-year-deal\/\" target=\"_self\">New Mets first baseman<\/a> <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/polanjo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jorge Polanco<\/a> worked a six-pitch walk \u2014 his third of the game \u2014 forcing Barco to show more of his arsenal before Robert ever stepped in the box. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That, Robert said, made all the difference.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt gives me an advantage because I\u2019m able to see all the pitches that pitcher has,\u201d Robert said. \u201cI also know that pitcher is working really hard to try to get him out, and he\u2019s starting to exert more energy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">WELCOME TO THE NEW YORK METS, LUIS!!! <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/kSJOou0hhu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/kSJOou0hhu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 New York Mets (@Mets) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Mets\/status\/2038036991191777306?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 28, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Grinding It Out<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before that third walk, Robert even joked with Polanco in the dugout, asking how many walks he planned to draw this season. Through just two games, Polanco already has five \u2014 an early trend that, while unsustainable, shows his ability to grind out at-bats.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For Robert, acquired in a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/01\/21\/mets-trade-white-sox-luis-robert\/\" target=\"_self\">trade with the Chicago White Sox<\/a> over the winter, it ties into a bigger focus this season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe one thing that great players have is knowing how to select the proper pitches to swing at,\u201d he said. \u201cFor me to be able to go back to being the player that I was and the player that I know I\u2019m capable of being is going to be a big part of my game.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On this night, that approach showed up at the perfect time \u2014 turning one swing into a moment the Mets won\u2019t soon forget.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I faced him a lot in spring [training], and I was getting real tired of facing him,&#8221; said <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/peterda01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-03-28_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Peterson<\/a>, who started the game for the Mets and pitched 5 1\/3 scoreless innings. &#8220;It was nice to see him do that from the dugout. He&#8217;s been dialed in since he got here and it&#8217;s been a lot of fun to watch and get to know him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite it being just game two of 162, this was a special moment for Robert.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s real special. I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve hit a walk-off home run since 2020, so to be able to do it here [at Citi Field], these last two games have really been special.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: \u00a9 Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On a cold and windy day at Citi Field, Luis Robert Jr. sent New York Mets fans home happy, hitting a walk-off three-run home run on Saturday&#8217;s 4-2 opening series clinching win against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the bottom of the 11th inning, finally ending a 3-hour, 22-minute game. Mets&#8217; Hidden &#8216;Advantage&#8217; Comes to Light [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5706,"featured_media":117037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,1071,35],"tags":[1332,29156,513,6391],"class_list":["post-117014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mets","category-mlb","category-news","tag-david-peterson","tag-hunter-barco","tag-jorge-polanco","tag-luis-robert-jr"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5706"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117014"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117057,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117014\/revisions\/117057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}