"TURN THOSE THUMBS AROUND!!": Javy Baez Wins Mets Fans Over in Spectacular Fashion!


You couldn't write a more dramatic script than what Javy Baez and the New York Mets just pulled off. 

After spending 48 hours as public enemy #1 in New York for his "thumbs down" gesture Sunday at Mets fans in response to their booing, Javy Baez just as quickly won them all back with a thrilling slide home and a walk-off win.

Trailing 5-4 with two men on (Baez on 1st base), Michael Conforto's base hit to left tied the game, but when Miami Marlins' left fielder Jorge Alfaro bobbled the ball, Baez charged around 3rd and with an all-out slide beat the throw to win it for the Mets. 

That capped a 5-RUN bottom of the 9th for New York, the first time ever in their history they won a game that they were trailing by 4 runs in the 9th inning (0-214). 

Mets president Sandy Alderson blasted the players' actions as "unacceptable" and called a team meeting on Sunday after the players' thumbs down gestures to fans, and Baez' explanation that they were, in fact, booing the fans. Baez and Francisco Lindor apologized earlier on Tuesday, though maybe not with the greatest sincerity ("If we offended anybody, we apologize"). 

Earlier in the game, ill feelings were still all around Citi Field, as Baez was given a rousing round of boos and hordes of thumbs-down in his first at-bat. 

But a five-run comeback and a walk-off play at the plate has quickly erased all those memories, and, as Mets' play-by-play man Gary Cohen put it, "turned those thumbs around!!" Here's how Cohen made the call:

Photo Credit: Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports