David Wright wasn’t willing to take much credit for his walk-off hit with two outs in the ninth inning last night at Citi Field.
“It was a 120-foot flair,” Wright said. “My thumbs hurt on that one. He jammed me pretty good.”
Nevertheless, it got the job done, lifting the Mets to a dramatic 6-5 come-from-behind win over the Phillies and their closer Jonathan Papelbon
Wright’s modesty was admirable, considering his floater that landed softly in right field was his third hit of the night and scored his fourth RBI. Though his last hit might not have been as sharp as his run-scoring single in the third inning that tied the game 2-2 or as towering as his two-run homer in the fifth that gave his team a brief 4-3 lead, it put the finishing touches on one of the most dramatic and perhaps most important wins the Mets have experienced this season.
The last thing the Mets want to see is the struggling Phillies start to show some signs of life, and losing a series to their NL East rival at home would have been disheartening. Instead, the Mets revived the kind of resiliency they have displayed throughout this surprising season to stage a memorable ninth-inning rally from a 5-4 deficit.
Wright was scheduled to bat seventh in the ninth, and by the time the Mets got to him, Ike Davis had doubled, pinch-hitter Jordany Valdespin was hit by a pitch, Ruben Tejada had walked and Daniel Murphy had reached on an infield hit that had bounced off Papelbon’s leg and scored the tying run.
The bases were loaded, there were two outs and up stepped the perfect man for the situation.
“I think I had the worst at-bat out of everybody in that inning,” Wright said. “I don’t like facing [Papelbon]. The few at-bats I’ve had, he’s really overpowered me. I was just looking for something I could put in play, almost like a two-strike approach up there. I was able to fight off one of those fastballs and it found a hole.”
To the 45-38 Mets and the 28,409 in attendance, it didn’t matter if it was a bloop or a blast. The celebration and subsequent pie in the face was fitting for the leader of a team that has taken his cue and learned to fight to the finish.
“What’s making this ball club go is you’re thinking about the next guy more than yourself and that starts with David,” Murphy said. “You look at the on-base percentage he’s got (.443) and the walks he’s willing to take and then you look when he does swing and he’s doing damage, we feed off of that.”
That’s why it was only fitting Wright would be up with two outs and the game on the line.
“If you would have drawn it up at the beginning of the inning and said we’re going to have a tie game and bases loaded with David up, we’d have signed up for that no ifs, ands or buts,” Murphy said.
The Mets showed they could win even on night when R.A. Dickey didn’t have his best knuckleball. He struggled with his command early and allowed a season-high 11 hits. But he battled just like the Mets battled, working seven innings before being lifted for a pinch-hitter in the home seventh.
It was what manager Terry Collins called “a team win” from there, with the bullpen, pinch-hitters, disciplined batters and a superstar all doing their part.
“It seems like all year we’ve had that never-say-die attitude,” Wright said. “Sometimes we’ve come up a little bit short, and there’s been some times where we’ve gotten the job done like tonight. But it’s the attitude. Guys are trying to have good at-bats and continue to play the game no matter what the score is.”
Wright was mobbed at second base after pretending to avoid the on-coming rush of teammates.
“My ribs are sore and I think I have a headache,” he said. “They were giving it to me pretty good.”
It was a well-deserved beating.
george.willis@nypost.com