Games are only truly meaningless if the players playing acknowledge they are meaningless.

To see the roar and chest-pounding from Francisco Lindor, and to see the joy from Jefry Yan, who somehow ended up on all fours on the grass, where he slapped the field in celebration, reiterated that the Mets front office admitted defeat on the season at the trade deadline but the clubhouse did not.

Lindor helped save a feel-good, if not exactly consequential, game with one of the prettier plays a defender can make in a 3-2, 10-inning walk-off victory over the MLB-best Brewers at Citi Field in front of 28,942 who were not thinking about the draft positioning.

And a five-time All-Star who is 32 was not thinking about a vacation or about next season.

Lindor — an everyday grinder who drilled that go-ahead, ninth-inning homer in Atlanta in Game 161 in 2024 to send the club to the playoffs and rounded the bases without emotion — showed as much elation as he has all season following what might have been his play of the year.

All for a Mets team that improved to 60-72 and will not be playing in October. Why?

“The team has picked me up more times than I’ve picked them up this year,” said Lindor, who struggled, missed two months with injury and then struggled particularly defensively upon returning. “So to be there for the guys, it meant a lot. I’ve been wanting to do that.”

The Mets sealed the game in the 10th when Christopher Morel did well to make contact with the bases loaded and ground a ball to third baseman David Hamilton, who threw wild to home plate to enable Lindor — who else? — to score the game-winner.

But the most memorable drama occurred an inning earlier.

Austin Warren — pitching in place of fill-in closer Kodai Senga, who had thrown Saturday and Sunday — blew a one-run lead in the ninth by allowing a game-tying RBI double to Christian Yelich.

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Yan entered a second-and-third-with-one-out jam, struck out Garrett Mitchell and walked Joey Ortiz.

With the bases loaded, two outs and the game in the balance, Hamilton volleyed what sure looked like a go-ahead hit that would find grass in left field.

“I already saw that ball down,” said interim manager Andy Green, “and it’s kind of like that deflating feeling when you know the ball’s about to land.”

And yet Lindor — who has had plenty of issues defensively and later referenced the nine errors he has made — covered serious ground, left his feet and went full extension.

He soared through the air, snatched a ball that was behind him and saved a game.

And then he bounced right back up and screamed toward the crowd, and Yan, too, was predictably demonstrative for a Mets team for which much can be said, but it cannot be said that they have quit.

Lindor was asked about his goals for the rest of the season, and he did not mention preserving his body to ensure health.

“Be the best version of myself. Be Francisco Lindor,” said Lindor, who also contributed offensively with a fifth-inning home run that tied the game at 1-1. “Play as hard as I can day in and day out.Give everything I got to the guys.”

Elsewhere for the Mets, there were encouraging signs for 2027. Zac Thornton (six innings, one run against one of the best offenses in baseball) was excellent.

As was Nate Lavender, who threw two clean innings behind Thornton and now has allowed one hit and zero runs in his first 9 ²/₃ major league innings.

As was Jonathan Pintaro, who was the winning pitcher after stranding the ghost runner in a two-strikeout 10th inning.

It is a different kind of emergence, but Lindor is announcing himself, too. A proud veteran is continuing to play and continuing to lead.

“Everything he has is put on the field to win a baseball game,” Green said. “… I think we’re all cognizant of where we are [in the standings], but there was a game to be played with fans that filled the stadium — and gave a crazy roar after that play — and so you just enjoy those moments.

“It’s one of the reasons you play the game.”