For the first time since 2015, the Mets are in the National League Championship Series. The silliness has drawn the headlines: Jose Iglesias' Latin pop song "OMG," Grimace, the McDonald's mascot who has somehow gone from mascot of capitalism to, well, honestly, I'm not even sure at this point. More importantly, though, the Mets have played great baseball. They were the best team in MLB since mid-June and that fervor only grew as the season stretched on. By September, they seemed unstoppable. And so far in the playoffs, they have been.
They split with the Braves in a hurricane-necessitated doubleheader to make the playoffs. They took two of three from the Brewers to win the Wild Card Series. They knocked the Phillies out of the NLDS in four games. If you look at the box score, it's been methodical. But it's been anything but.
A magician is never supposed to reveal his secrets. To try to explain the Mets magic would be futile. Someone else can pull the stats on Edwin Díaz vs. Kyle Schwarber or how many shortstops have hit a go-ahead grand slam in the sixth inning or later in a playoff game or Sean Manaea's arm slot. That all matters. The moments matter more.
Here are the 10 biggest from an insane 10-day stretch, from the Braves doubleheader on Sept. 30 to the NLDS-clinching win on Oct. 9.
1. 8th-inning rally in Atlanta
The Mets came into the Monday, Sept. 30, doubleheader with three options: sweep the Braves, split with the Braves, get swept by the Braves. Two of those got them into the playoffs. The third sent them home for a cold, dark winter (or at least an extra month of golf in Port St. Lucie). They had outrun a hurricane, they had lost two of three to the Brewers and while every other playoff team was resting and setting up their rotation, they were fighting for their lives. In Game 1, Tylor Megill did well enough, allowing three runs in 5 2/3 innings, but none of that mattered if the Mets couldn't scratch across a run. For seven innings, runs evaded them. Then Tyrone Taylor doubled. So did Francisco Alvarez. Starling Marte, Francisco Lindor and Jose Iglesias hit back-to-back-to-back singles. Mark Vientos drove in a run on a sacrifice fly. And then Brandon Nimmo landed the final punch with a two-run home run. Suddenly, it was 6-3 and the Mets were six outs away from the postseason.
2. Lindor's home run vs. the Braves
But this is the Mets we're talking about, right? It's never that easy. Handed a three-run lead in the bottom of the eighth of Game 1, Phil Maton hit a batter and allowed a single before being pulled for closer Edwin Díaz. Díaz induced a groundout from Gio Urshela and up stepped pinch hitter Jarred Kelenic, he of the famous Robinson Cano trade that also netted the Mets, oh, wait, Edwin Díaz. Kelenic singled to make it 6-4 on a play where Díaz forgot to cover first base. Michael Harris II walked. Ozzie Albies drove in two. It was 7-6 and you could feel the shoulders sag across the tri-state area. Lindor said no.
With an 8-7 final, the Mets clinched a wild-card spot. They lost Game 2, securing a playoff berth for the Braves, but it didn't matter. They were in. From there, anything could happen.
3. Five-run fifth vs. the Brewers
On Tuesday, Oct. 1, the Mets were back in Milwaukee for Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, facing off against the Brewers once again. For a few innings, they traded runs back and forth. Then the Mets did it again, scoring five runs in the fifth, their most productive playoff inning since Game 4 of the 2006 NLCS against the Cardinals. That put them up 8-4, a score that would stand. The never-say-die Mets refused to die.
4. Alonso's game-winning home run
After losing Game 2, the Mets squared off against the Brewers in a do-or-die Game 3. Winner moves on to play the Phillies. Loser goes home. At this point, it was a familiar story. Jose Quintana, Tobias Meyers and a litany of relievers on both sides traded zeroes until the bottom of the seventh, when José Buttó gave up back-to-back home runs to Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick. Edwin Díaz got out of the inning and threw a clean eighth, but the Mets, once again, were down to their last outs. And once again, the Mets refused to die. A walk and a single put two runners on for Pete Alonso, whose mediocre 2024 season (at least by his standards) had drawn gradually louder questions about his looming free agency. None of that mattered in that moment. The home run champion did what he does best: he hit it to the moon.
Another run would score on a Starling Marte single and David Peterson closed out the bottom of the ninth. The Mets were going to the NLDS.
5. Game 1 rally vs. the Phillies
Maybe more than any other team, the Mets know the Phillies' whole deal. Big money, big stars, big home runs. For relatively new owner Steve Cohen, that was the ideal. And in Game 1 of the NLDS, the NL East rivals proved why. Kyle Schwarber led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run off Kodai Senga, making just his second appearance of the year. Then nothing happened. For six innings. The Mets mustered just one hit off ace (and former Met) Zack Wheeler. "Our health and performance department, our coaches all contributed and helped him parlay two good half-seasons over the last five years into a $118 million," former Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen had once said of Wheeler. It was karmic retribution in Philadelphia.
But no one pitches complete games anymore. Jeff Hoffman took over for the eighth and the Mets remembered how to hit, to the tune of a five-run inning. The rally kids had done it again.
6. Vientos' Game 2 homers
Though it may seem like it, the Mets don't always win. Mark Vientos, relegated to the minors to start the year, tried his best to make that the case anyway. In a Game 2 loss against the Phillies, Vientos homered twice, once in the third to put them up 2-0 and again in the ninth to tie the game 6-6. Nick Castellanos would walk it off for the Phillies in the home half of the inning to tie the NLDS, but the magic still sparked. Including his first-inning double, Vientos became the third-youngest Met with multiple extra-base hits in a playoff game, older than just Michael Conforto (2015 World Series Game 4) and David Wright (2006 NLDS Game 1).
7. Winker's home run at Citi Field
After coming over from the Nationals at the trade deadline, Jesse Winker had been good, but not great. A 95 OPS+ in the regular season, but he always seemed to be in the middle of everything. In Game 3 of the NLDS, that continued to prove true. Pete Alonso put the Mets up 1-0 in the second, then Winker extended the lead to 2-0 with his own solo shot in the fourth. The Mets scored five more times for a 7-2 final, but Winker was the face of it. For the better part of five years, he had been a Mets villain. Not quite the likes of Chipper Jones, but he was up there. In 2019, then with the Reds, he hit a go-ahead home run off Edwin Díaz and waved goodbye to the Citi Field faithful after the final out. A night later, he again waved to the crowd after a sliding catch. In 2022, as a Mariner, he launched a game-tying, three-run home run off Chasen Shreve and, you guessed it, waved. He's still waving at Citi Field. This time, though, he's doing it in blue and orange.
8. Manaea's impressive Game 3 outing
In that same Game 3, Sean Manea was brilliant, holding the Phillies to just one run over seven innings and striking out six while out-dueling Aaron Nola. He gave the bullpen a rest and the offense a chance to come through. Manea, in fact, had been doing that for months, ever since he decided to start pitching like Chris Sale and…pulled it off? Sure why not. After the game, Manaea revealed that his Aunt Mabel had died that morning. "That game was for her," he said.
There had been a lot of talk about Manaea's playoff struggles (15.26 ERA in three previous postseason appearances before 2024) but none of that mattered Tuesday night. The past was the past. And Sean Manaea might just be great.
9. Lindor's unforgettable grand slam
By the time Thursday came around, the Mets looked invincible. For a while, Ranger Suárez looked like he was about to break that streak, getting into and out of trouble seemingly every inning in Game 4. He bent and bent and bent and never broke. The Mets left bases loaded repeatedly. Was this where dreams went to die? Had the magic run out?
With Jeff Hoffman on the mound to start the sixth inning, J.D. Martinez singled then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Starling Marte was hit by a pitch before both runners advanced on another wild pitch. Tyrone Taylor walked. With bases loaded and one out, the Phillies turned to deadline acquisition Carlos Estévez.
Francisco Lindor hit a grand slam.
In a run of spectacular success, Lindor's home run felt the loudest. Here was the face of the franchise, an MVP frontrunner in any other year. He had spent the year carrying the team on his back and he had done it again.
"That $341 (million) is looking pretty freakin' good right now," owner Steve Cohen told the New York Post after the win.
Maybe that's simplifying things. But maybe it's that simple. Pay great players and they'll play great for you.
10. Díaz shuts it down
With the Mets three outs away from the NLCS – and the Phillies three outs away from elimination – Mets manager Carlos Mendoza sent closer Edwin Díaz to the mound. He promptly walked J.T. Realmuto and Bryson Stott to lead off the inning and you could practically hear the panic: was this another of Díaz's meltdown outings? Instead, he struck out Kody Clemens and got Brandon Marsh to fly out. Kyle Schwarber was the last hope. Díaz got him on a 101 mph fastball and that was it. The Mets had won. The Mets were moving on.
