A couple of weeks ago, Mets manager Buck Showalter asked a few veterans to step into a meeting.
The team had just called up Mark Vientos, a big-swinging righty without a true position, and there surely would be fewer at-bats to go around.
The group did not include any complainers. Mark Canha told his manager he just wanted to win.
A couple of weeks later, Canha — whose playing time has dipped, if not dived, amid a slow start and a crowded clubhouse — ensured a Mets victory.
The previously struggling outfielder blasted his first home run since May 3 and drove in all of the Mets’ runs in a 4-1 win over the Phillies in front of 39,641 at Citi Field.
The Mets (29-27) assured themselves of winning the series over their division rival before the finale Thursday and have bounced back after a 2-4 road trip.
They only needed two hits Tuesday — a home run from Francisco Lindor and an RBI single from Eduardo Escobar — to win the series opener, and they only needed one lively bat a night later.
With the Mets trailing 1-0 in the third inning, Canha followed a Daniel Vogelbach walk with a two-run home run, his fourth of the season.
He had gone 19 straight games without a homer, entered in a 5-for-23 skid and has been a below-average hitter for the first two months of the season.
“I was just trying to kind of set the tone for the day and just see the ball well and move balanced and slow,” said Canha, who picked up one-quarter of his 16 RBIs this season in his 48th game. “Not really any plans to do anything except try and get a good pitch to hit.
“And I got one.”
Tommy Pham is playing better.
The Mets now have Vientos, a capable young bat, as well as Francisco Alvarez, who could spend time at DH.
All are righties.
There is more pressure for Canha’s righty bat to come around, and perhaps it has.
Like Escobar, Canha has responded well to a downturn in playing time.
“Mark is low-maintenance,” Showalter said, “because he does everything to stay ready.”
He was ready in his second at-bat of the night, too.
In the fourth inning, a single from Pete Alonso and a pair of walks to Brett Baty and Vogelbach had loaded the bases with two outs.
Canha, who has slipped to the No. 8 spot in the lineup, fought back from an 0-2 hole against Aaron Nola and slapped a two-run single to right to extend the Mets’ lead to 4-1.
Canha said he has been working on his swing and believes it is in a good place, even if results are not always the true indicator.
“Sometimes it clicks, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that you get two hits and have a great night. Sometimes it clicks and you have some bad luck and the pitcher makes really good pitches and you go 0-for-4,” said Canha, who upped his OPS to .710. “And so I try to grab onto something that’s real and something that’s tangible and something that is sustainable throughout the course of the year.”
The Mets needed just six runs to beat the Phillies twice.
Fittingly, the foodie Canha backed up Carlos “Cookie” Carrasco on a night when the Mets sure looked hungry.
Carrasco, who looks fixed after a rough beginning to his season, followed up Kodai Senga’s seven innings of brilliance Tuesday with six innings of excellence.
The Mets, who have struggled to get length out of a hurting rotation all year, improved to 15-0 this season when their starter has gone at least six innings.
The veteran right-hander allowed just one run, on a third-inning homer from Edmundo Sosa, on six hits and walked one.
With Carrasco returning to form, Senga stepping up and Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander at least healthy, the Mets’ rotation is in the best shape it has been this season.
“[Length from the starting pitcher] makes defense matter and add-on runs matter,” Showalter said after Brooks Raley, Adam Ottavino and David Robertson, who earned his 10th save, finished off Philadelphia. “When you can make leads hold up and give the pitcher some margin of error, there’s a lot better tempo to the games.”
When a group of veterans whose playing time is in jeopardy buy in, you have a better chance of winning games like the one the Mets won Wednesday.