It was around 11 p.m. Friday when Terry Collins predicted the future.
Collins, the Mets’ manager, approached the bench coach, Bob Geren, in the bottom of the 12th inning of the Mets’ important, emphatic 2-1 win over the Washington Nationals at Citi Field. The game was tied at 1-1, and the Mets were about to bat. Collins told Geren that someone was going to hit a home run that inning.
“When the ball left the bat,” Collins said after the game, “I said, ‘And it had to be him.’ ”
He was, of course, referring to second baseman Wilmer Flores, who had just hit his first career walk-off home run and drove in both runs to power the Mets’ win.