JUAN FOR THE BOOKS
LAGARES’ 3- RUN HR CAPS COMEBACK WIN OVER BRAVES:
Dillon Gee followed Saturday’s gut- punch loss by digging a fiverun hole for his teammates. Boos exploded from the large Citi Field crowd, another series loss seemed inevitable.
Negativity was everywhere — everywhere except the home dugout.
“Everybody stayed positive,” rookie outfielder Darrell Ceciliani said. “Not going down without a fight, thatwas the mentality, andwe made it happen.”
For once, a poor start didn’t preclude the Mets from victory. Of course, it’s not every day the offensively challenged home team makes Citi Field look like a band box, but on Sunday, the Mets had their power swing working.
The Mets hit four homers in three innings— they had just two over their previous five home games — en route to a comefrombehind 10- 8 victory over the Braves on Sunday afternoon in front of 36,340 on Banner Day.
“I don’t think anybody ever felt like we were out of it,” Travis d’Arnaud said. “It shows the fight and resiliency this team has.”
Ceciliani, d’Arnaud, Dilson Herrera and Juan Lagares each went deep, with Lagares’ threerun shot in the sixth proving to be the game- winner, as the Mets reached double- figures in runs for just the second time this season, and made Gee’s dreadful start a footnote.
It also gave the Mets, whowon for just the second time this year when allowing six runs or more, their first series victory since sweeping the Phillies May 25- 27, and marked the first time in four years they won when trailing by five runs. They remained a halfgame ahead of the Nationals atop the NL East.
“One of the girls [ in the kitchen] said [ Jeurys] Familia was in there getting some water in the fifth inning and he said, ‘ I don’t care what the score is, we’re going to win,’ ” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “That’s the confidence that’s in the room.”
Less than 24 hours after blowing Saturday’s game, the bullpen was brilliant, tossing 6 1/ 3 innings of shutout ball. Familia, the beaming new father, earned his 19th save in 20 chances by getting four outs after Sean Gilmartin stabilized the game, throwing two hitless frames for his first victory of the year.
Gee, making a spot start in the “six- man light” rotation, dug the Mets ( 34- 30) a deep hole, touched up for eight earned runs and 11 hits in 3 2/ 3 innings, the second- shortest outing of his career, to raise his ERA to 5.90.
In his first start since June 4 against the Padres, Gee was throwing what looked like batting practice; even the outs were hit hard. Braves rookie Jace Peterson equaled his career high of three hits, all against Gee, and had Atlanta’s big blow, a threerun homer in the second. Gee allowed-multiple hits in each hitting before he was finally lifted in the fourth, after allowing a Nick Markakis RBI double, as boos rained down on the righthander.
The Mets chipped away, relying on the home run ball to get back into it. Ceciliani hit his first najor league home run leading off the fourth, a second- deck shot to right field, and Herrera went yard two batters later to make it 8- 5. D’Arnaud cut the deficit to 8- 7 in the fifth, hammering a two- run shot into the left- field stands off reliever Brandon Cunniff, his first homer since returning Wednesday from his seven- week absence due to a broken right pinkie.
An inning later, Lagares went yard, launching a hanging Luis Avilan breaking ball down the line for his third homer of the year, giving the Mets the lead for good.
“That’s an amazing win right there,” said the red- hot Lagares, who is hitting .390 ( 16- for- 41) over his past 10 games. “The whole team battled the whole game. We never [ gave] up. Great win.”
zbraziller@ nypost. com