By the late innings Monday night, as they have so often this season, the Mets just felt inevitable. Like headlights of a speeding car growing brighter in the rearview mirror, it’s only a matter of time before they swerve around and rocket right past you.

The pitiful Pirates, a team all-too-familiar with being left in the dust, became Flushing’s latest victim, as Pete Alonso’s walk-off sacrifice fly in the ninth inning delivered the Mets’ 4-3 comeback victory at Citi Field.

But this wasn’t about any big blast. It was a series of relentless little actions, stacked upon each other, until the Mets emerged with win No. 27 on the season, tying the Dodgers and Tigers for the most in the majors.

‘We don’t give up,” said Alonso, whose eight career walk-off RBIs ties him with Kevin McReynolds for the third most in franchise history. “We’re a scrappy bunch. Yeah, we got guys who can drive the ball out of the yard. We got guys who can put up some good numbers offensively, hit the ball a long way and stuff like that. But at the end of the day, our identity is, we’re just a scrappy team. We fight to the last out. That’s just who we are.”

The Mets were content to wait out Pirates ace Paul Skenes — who was gone after striking out six through six innings — then grind their way to the win, 90 feet at a time. It also took a homer-robbing catch by Brandon Nimmo, a technique he’s perfected this year at Citi Field, as he reached above the leftfield wall to pull back Joey Bart’s deep drive leading off the eighth. Reliever Dedniel Nunez, watching nervously, tipped his cap.

“As soon as he hit it, I thought it was out,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Nimmo went out there, didn’t give up and made a hell of a play.”

Said Nimmo: “I knew that if I could get a really good jump on it, I’d have a great shot of catching it. So I think that relative comfort with your home field, it helps you to be able to go and make those plays.”

The Mets relied on more than just Nimmo’s legs to position themselves for the late-inning comeback. They’re now 22-1 when leading after the seventh, but first had to rally from down 2-1 in the bottom half of that inning.

The Mets manufactured the tying run when pinch-hitter Tyrone Taylor took a pitch off his foot, stole second base, sprinted for third on Luisangel Acuna’s hustle infield single and scored when Juan Soto grounded meekly to first. Acuna’s trip home for the go-ahead run was even more adventurous, as he bolted for the plate from second after Alonso’s sharp grounder clanged off the glove of third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes.

Acuna was approaching third as shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa chased after the ball in shallow leftfield, but spotted coach Mike Sarbaugh waving him around and turned on the jets. Sliding home feet-first, Acuna managed to sweep his left hand across the plate to narrowly beat the tag (it held up to the Pirates’ replay challenge).

“It was a great read and also a great send,” Alonso said. “His speed is electric. He causes a ton of havoc on the basepaths. He’s a burner and having that skill set is huge for us.”

The Mets ran circles around the dazed Pirates during that seventh inning, but they came perilously close to sabotaging themselves with an uncharacteristically sloppy ninth. Francisco Lindor somehow let a room-service, high-hop, double-play grounder kick off his glove for an error and Acuna — with the infield pulled in —couldn’t corral another chopper that he should’ve grabbed to cut down the tying run at the plate.

No matter. Rather than self-destruct, Jeff McNeil started a nifty inning-ending double play with Lindor — the Squirrel had to hit the deck to avoid the relay throw — and the Mets took a deep breath to compose themselves for the winning rally in the bottom half. The top of the order was due up, and it’s not like Skenes was around to stop them anymore.

Once Kiner-Falefa let Lindor’s one-out grounder scoot beneath his glove for an error, the resourceful Mets had their opening. Soto, who was 0-for-3 with a walk to that point, smoked a line-drive single to center that allowed Lindor to cruise into third base. Alonso then worked the count to 3-and-1 against David Bednar before punching a 98-mph fastball into midrange rightfield, plenty deep to plate Lindor.

No panic, just their usual businesslike approach. The Mets don’t always win games like this. But they believe they will just the same, and it seems to work out for them more times than not.

“When you have that maturity, you realize you’re not going to come through every single time, and you just have to give it your best effort,” Nimmo said. “Then the next guy does the same, and you do that enough, the pressure mounts on the other team. For us, it’s just passing that baton to the next guy and being able to not make the situation any bigger than it is.”

Nimmo makes it sound so easy. In reality, it’s not. These Mets just have a knack for snatching Ws at the very last moments, and they seem to be getting better at it as the season goes on.