Maybe it was the magical touch of Grimace. Maybe it was their second baseman releasing a No. 1 song. Or maybe it was their MVP-caliber leadoff man. Whatever the cause, the Mets have clawed their way back to the postseason, clinching a spot with a wild, see-sawing game 161 victory over the Atlanta Braves in the first game of Monday’s rescheduled doubleheader.
It was a game befitting the Mets’ roller coaster season, one that saw dramatic lead changes and left them seemingly out of it before they rallied one last time to secure a postseason berth.
The early part of the game was quiet enough, one that appeared to be headed for a Braves win. The Braves took a 2-0 lead in the third inning on a two-run shot by Ozzie Albies off Tylor Megill. Albies has struggled for the most part since returning from a two-month IL stint for a fractured left wrist. A switch-hitter, Albies has been forced to hit only from the right side, a concession to the pain that lingers in his wrist when he hits left-handed. But it did not matter against the righty Megill, who had not surrendered a homer to the last 122 major-league hitters he’d faced, a stretch dating back to a July 27 start against Atlanta.
Meanwhile, Braves rookie Spencer Schwellenbach secured his place as an applicant among renowned Mets killers. In his 21st big league start, Schwellenbach took a shutout into the eighth inning, departing departed to a standing ovation after allowing a leadoff double to Tyrone Taylor.
Then the Mets took over. Francisco Alvarez followed Taylor with an RBI double off Braves reliever Joe Jimenez. Starling Marte backed him up with a single, and Lindor knocked in another run with single up the middle. Snitker summed the closer, Raisel Iglesias, to face infielder Jose Iglesias. The Mets’ Iglesias promptly lined a game-tying single to right, and Mark Vientos followed with a sacrifice fly for the go-ahead run. When Brandon Nimmo hammered a home run to right field in the next at-bat for a 6-4 lead, it felt like the Mets were already on their way to the postseason.
Not quite. After the Braves put two men on in the bottom of the eighth, the Mets turned to standout closer Edwin Díaz, who has reliably snuffed out so many rallies before. This time, he struggled to find the strike zone, allowing an RBI single, a walk, and then a two-run double to Albies to hand the Braves a 7-6 edge.
Just as soon as the Mets were dead, though, they came back to life. Starling Marte lanced a one-out single, bringing Lindor to the plate with so much on the line. He delivered, crushing a two-run home run to center field and giving the Mets the 8-7 advantage they would hold until the final out, their dugout emptying and the playoff-bound players bounding up and down around the pitcher’s mound.
Although the Mets had clinched, the Mets and Braves still needed to play the second game of the doubleheader, with the Braves needing to win to clinch their own playoff spot. That would come at the expense of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who were forced to sit idle and watch, having played their 162nd game on Sunday and finding themselves on the outside due to tiebreakers.
The Mets-Braves games doubleheader was played on Monday due to Hurricane Helene wreaking havoc in the southeastern United States last week, and forcing the postponement of the scheduled Mets-Braves series in Atlanta. MLB opted not to play the games scheduled for Sept. 25 and 26 at a neutral site or to play them earlier last week, in anticipation of the weather — resulting in a scenario where the winner of the first game was not incentivized to win the second, putting both the Mets and Braves in the playoffs and leaving the Diamondbacks out.
The odd circumstances of the final games only serve to highlight difficult path the Mets traveled to get to this point. Under the new leadership of first-year team president David Stearns and first-time manager Carlos Mendoza, the Mets put together an admirable late-season surge to overtake the Diamondbacks in the race for the final postseason spot.
Just months ago, the playoffs seemed like an impossible task. Their season hit a low point on May 29, when New York fell 11 games below .500 after getting swept at home by the Dodgers. Reliever Jorge Lopez threw his glove in the stands and was DFA’d shortly thereafter.
On April 4 in an afternoon game against the Tigers, Mets broadcaster Gary Cohen said while “Nobody in the ballpark, 0-5 (record). Hitless through 7. It feels like rock bottom.”
The last three months, however, have been one party after another. Led by shortstop and MVP candidate Lindor, the Mets fought admirably to stay in the mix of the crowded and chaotic NL wild-card picture.
When the Mets traded Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander last July, they signaled to those players that the team would not go all-in on 2024. Instead, the year would be used to develop young players and assess their best path to World Series contention. It turned out that their best path was making the playoffs right now.
The Mets don’t have the most talented club, and they’re lined up to face either the San Diego Padres or the Milwaukee Brewers in the Wild-Card Series. It won’t be easy. But nothing about this season has been. This shot that they’ve got has been hard earned.
(Photo: Todd Kirkland / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
