The New York Mets know a thing or two about comebacks.
They saved their best one for the final day of the regular season.
Overcoming deficits of 3-0 in the eighth inning and 7-6 in the ninth on Monday, they clinched a playoff berth when Francisco Lindor’s two-run homer capped a thrilling 8-7 win over the Atlanta Braves in the opener of a makeup doubleheader.
Photo: Brett Davis-Imagn Images / USA Today
That was only fitting for a team that started 0-5 and hardly looked like post-season material when they slipped 11 games under .500 in late May.
“Everybody had us out, even before the year started, and here we are, man,” rookie Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said.
New York lost the nightcap 3-0, but it hardly mattered. Pete Alonso and the Mets had already locked up the 11th post-season appearance in team history, advancing to a best-of-three National League Wild Card Series in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, today.
“We’re a franchise that hasn’t had enough of these moments,” first-year president of baseball operations David Stearns said during the champagne party in the clubhouse. “We’ve got more work to do. I don’t think anyone in here is satisfied with just one celebration.”
Lindor, who returned on Friday last week from a back injury that had sidelined him since Sept. 15, came through with the big hit, launching a drive into the Braves bullpen off Pierce Johnson.
“In slow motion it felt like,” Lindor said. “Emotion. Emotion. It felt like I got the pitch that I wanted, and you never know if the ball is going to go out or not, but I feel like I got it 100 percent. We’re one step closer. Now we’ve got to finish it. Finish, finish, finish.”
Asked what he was thinking when he rounded the bases, Lindor said: “My back hurts. I’m tired. I know how good Atlanta is.”
New York had lost 77 straight games when trailing by three runs in the eighth inning or later since May 17 last year.
“I’ve never seen a game like that. It was just a total roller coaster,” Mets owner Steve Cohen said. “I had tears in my eyes when we went ahead and then I was in shock when we fell behind, and then Francisco, just a big-boy moment, rises to the occasion. I mean, he must have dreamed of that as a kid.”
It was a throwback to 1973, when the Mets also clinched a playoff spot on the day after the season was supposed to finish. Back then, they beat the Chicago Cubs 6-4 to secure the National League East title.
“These are special moments. You’ve got to enjoy these moments,” said Stearns, who grew up a Mets fan in New York City. “This is the standard of where we should be.”
This year, a 10-3 loss to the Dodgers on May 29 completed a three-game Los Angeles sweep at Citi Field by a combined 18-5. New York dropped to 22-33 in their first season under Mendoza and were six games out of the last wild-card slot, needing to overcome seven teams.
Lindor called a players-only meeting. As players explained it, the Mets aired some issues in the clubhouse that day and committed themselves to positivity, effective preparation, and a team-first approach dedicated to helping each other and winning games.
“We just opened the floor and talked about ways we can turn it around,” outfielder Brandon Nimmo said. “Just felt like a boiling-over point.”
Since then, with Lindor leading the charge, they have the best record in the majors at 67-40 while outscoring opponents 541-433.
“It’s been an uphill fight,” Lindor said. “We put ourselves in a big hole and we kept climbing and kept climbing. We kept our shoulders above water. After the All-Star break, you know, we never believed that we were drowning.”
One of New York’s biggest concerns going into the Wild Card Series is the availability of star closer Edwin Diaz, who recovered from a blown save to get the win in the doubleheader opener. The right-hander has thrown 66 pitches over the past two days, but the Mets have not been deterred all season.
“Nobody thought back in April outside of this clubhouse that we were going to make the playoffs, that we had any shot,” Nimmo said. “We were able to go out and go through really, really tough times, and find ourselves on the other side and pull ourselves up, and really rally together and have each other’s backs and be able to culminate in this.”
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