These Mets

Two years ago, I was lucky enough to be one of the fans watching the New York Mets pull off a Game 2 National League Wild Card win against the San Diego Padres. After a 7-0 home loss the night before with recently acquired pitcher Max Scherzer on the mound, the Mets needed some magic from their bats. And they found that magic in a 7-3 victory, emblemized by a voluptuous Citi Field. At the start of the game, each fan was handed an orange “These Mets” rally towel. But after Game 3, the rally was over. The bats of “These Mets” fell silent in a 6-0 home loss that saw the Padres advance to the Division Series.

But if any long-time viewer was being honest with themself, those Mets were not the kind of Mets to make a deep playoff run. After tying for 101 wins in the National League (N.L.) East with the Atlanta Braves, the Mets had established themselves as a regular season team that could produce. Second baseman Jeff McNeil was their prolific hitter with a batting average of .326, and first baseman slugger Pete Alonso was learning to get on base with more than just home runs, earning 62 walks. Scherzer, recently acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers, was on fire. He rounded out a Mets pitching core that ranked fifth in ERA. Overall, the Mets were good. They entered the playoffs as a team to beat, but one that had to settle for a Wild Card spot thanks to the late heroics of the Braves. That’s when they blew it, falling apart against a Padres team statistically nowhere near as strong as them.

What followed in 2023 was a complete meltdown. Deals shipped players across the country, the Mets finished fourth in the N.L. East, and manager Buck Showalter was fired. In the eyes of owner Steve Cohen, the team needed a full reset. They acquired a couple new pieces in outfielder Tyrone Taylor and third baseman Mark Vientos, combined with a few veterans—namely designated hitter J.D. Martinez and second baseman Jose Iglesias. At the helm, Cohen installed a relatively unknown Carlos Mendoza. For most Mets fans, 2024 was a year to breathe, to allow veterans to nurse new talent, and to search for a more viable pitching core. Their 24-33 record solidified that idea into May, with most fans abandoning their postseason hopes early on in the season.

The party came early for us all. By June, the Mets were firing on all cylinders with a 16-8 record in the month. Suddenly, people started paying attention to the Mets as they pulled off comeback after comeback with a group of guys that seemed to have come from the Sandlot. During a rain delay when fans gathered by the Shea Bridge, a fan dressed in a Grimace costume downed beer after beer, keeping fans entertained. Ever since, Grimace joined the Mets’ lore, with more fans dressing up in Grimace costumes to pull for the team, and the team even including Grimace in some between-the-innings shenanigans. After losing ace pitcher Kodai Senga to injury early into the season, their starting rotation consisted of a group of long-time pitching veterans who would have to fight for a starting spot on any other playoff contender. Shortstop Francisco Lindor hit a hot streak, and even after leaving the Mets mid-September due to a back injury, he was still having a record season, hitting prolifically and challenging Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani for the M.V.P. award. Come September, these Mets and their outsider lineup were producing hits and turning them into wins. 

The ace up their sleeve, however, was timing. Going into their penultimate series in Atlanta, the Mets had 40 comeback wins—an outstanding figure and the second-highest in the league besides the Dodgers. The situation was tense—the Mets, Braves, and Arizona Diamondbacks were all within a game of each other, battling out for the final wild card spots. The winner of the series in Atlanta would have significant implications for the two teams, so they played hard. In Game 1, the Mets fell to the Braves 5-1. Games 2 and 3 were postponed due to Hurricane Helene. 

No one saw it coming, but it definitely stung. The Mets now had to pack their bags and head up to Milwaukee to play the Brewers before trudging back down to Atlanta for a doubleheader on Monday that would settle the playoff race once and for all. The Braves, on the other hand, would have had the luxury of sleeping in their own beds after capping off their home series against the Kansas City Royals. The Mets could make their qualification hopes all the more easier by grabbing a few wins against the Brewers, but they could only win one. At 5:44 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, the Mets packed their bags for Atlanta, who finished their game at 6:05 p.m. Eastern. On Monday morning, with just the Mets-Braves doubleheader left to play, the circumstances were clear. The Mets and the Braves needed a win each to qualify for the playoffs. But if either team won both games, the Diamondbacks would win the second spot. 

Atlanta had the luxury of sending Spencer Schwellenbach to the mound against the Mets, who needed to play around less-than-superhuman Tylor Megill. Schwellenbach was on fire down the stretch, with a 2.54 ERA in his last 14 starts. He kept his end of the bargain, allowing zero runs during the seven innings he completed, with the Braves carrying a 3-0 lead into the 8th inning. And then, it started happening. A double from Taylor, a double from Alvarez, a single from Starling Marte, a single from Iglesias, and a sacrifice fly from Vientos. All of a sudden, the score was 4-3 Mets, and any Mets fan could feel the magic flowing. Brandon Nimmo provided the final exclamation point with a two-run home run—the Mets now had a three-run cushion with just six outs to get. 

Reliever Phil Maton started the eighth, but after plunking a batter and allowing a one-out single, he was removed for an insomniac Edwin Diaz, who had been brought in to secure the save just one night ago. He looked shaky, but he locked down the second out after lobbing a ground ball back to Alonso, who had to reach to secure the errant pitch. Braves outfielder Jason Kelenic would be the final out. He tapped a ground ball to first, an easy play. Alonso came off the bag to snare it, but Diaz did not run over to cover. The deficit was now one run smaller. The Braves’ leadoff man walked. And Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies delivered what everyone thought was the dagger: a three-run, bases-clearing double that returned the lead to the Braves. He got the final out, but the script had changed. Now the Mets, who had just created a miracle, would need another if they wanted to secure postseason baseball in this game.

Alvarez led off the top of the ninth, and popped up. One out. Marte made it aboard with a lightly tapped single, but the Mets would need far more. Next up to bat, none other than Lindor. And though we were still in September, Lindor decided that Christmas would come early this year for Mets fans. The first pitch was a slider, in the zone, and Lindor clobbered it into the bullpen. An unbelievable home run from an unbelievable player to cap off an unbelievable regular season. The Mets were going to play postseason baseball.

And guess where they were heading? Back up to Milwaukee, where the Brewers were poised to dominate them again as they had throughout the regular season. But these Mets were different. Luis Severino closed the door on Game 1 early, with the Mets bats putting together a five-run fifth inning and the bullpen picking up the slack. Poised to win it all in Game 2, the Brewers actually pulled off late heroics, scoring four runs in the eighth to win the match. It all would come down to Game 3. After a tight pitching duel between Jose Quintana and Tobias Myers, the Mets bullpen would blink first, with reliever Jose Butto allowing the Brewers to hit back-to-back home runs and take a 2-0 lead. Unlike the Mets, the Brewers’ bullpen stayed strong, recording groundout after strikeout after groundout to silence the Mets’ bats. Top of the ninth. Last chance. Lindor opens with a walk, and Nimmo joins him on base with a single. Up to the plate steps Alonso, who had struggled to get on base all series. 

I just want to say that I called it. Sitting next to my dad, watching that game, saying that “if anyone is gonna hit this ball into the stands, it HAS to be Pete Alonso.” Changeup right down the middle. The Polar Bear gets all over it, sending it into the Brewers’ bullpen and giving a chef’s kiss as he passes first base. Just like that, the Mets had the lead. Marte would bring in the insurance run for another incredible, late comeback for the New York Mets.

If you don’t know the Mets at their core, you probably don’t understand what this means to fans. Since the team’s founding, the Mets have watched their Bronx-based counterparts return World Series championship after championship with an impeccable formula—pay the guys who are good at baseball. The Mets tried this approach just a few years ago, making splash signings only to fall flat on their faces. It’s because this formula does not fit their character. These Mets are a chiseled group of misfits, guys who didn’t have the statlines to open New York Yankees owner Harold Steinbrenner’s checkbook, but guys with an incredible amount of homegrown chemistry. If any Mets team is going to win a World Series and bring a championship back to Queens, it has to be these Mets. The outliers. The clutch executioners. The dreamers. Throughout their history, the Mets championed the slogan “Ya Gotta Believe.” Perhaps they don’t look the best on paper. You could join the army of sports writers who think their Cinderella run will end in short order, as The Athletic’s writers did in the NLDS (which they won). But if you truly believe, if you let the supernatural take over, you might be able to witness the magic of the New York Mets.