The Mets are headed to Atlanta. Playoffs are on the line. Can the final week of the 2024 regular season exorcise that of 2022?
The Mets’ Pete Alonso greets Brandon Nimmo after his solo home run against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citi Field on Sunday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
It was the nights the lights went out in Georgia.
The Mets went into Atlanta on Sept. 30, 2022, with a one-game lead in the National League East. The Mets had Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt lined up for the series.
The Mets lost all three close games, finished second in the division with 101 wins and then dropped a three-game home wild-card series to San Diego.
Season over.
Two years later, the Mets are going into Truist Park with a two-game lead over Atlanta in the wild-card race. They have Luis Severino, David Peterson and Sean Manaea lined up for the series, which begins on Tuesday. Atlanta's starters for the series will be Spencer Schwellenbach, Chris Sale and Max Fried.
If the Mets win at least two games, they will clinch a playoff spot. And maybe finally exorcise some of the 2022 demons.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun in Atlanta,” Brandon Nimmo said on Sunday night after the Mets ended the Citi Field portion of their regular-season schedule with a 2-1 victory over the Phillies before a sold-out, rocking ballpark.
It was the second consecutive sellout at Citi Field, and the second day in a row Champagne bottles were not uncorked in Flushing.
Going into Saturday, the Phillies needed one win to clinch the East. The Mets denied them that pleasure and took three of four in the series.
You can bet the Mets will crack open a few bottles of Champagne – the good stuff, no doubt, with Steve Cohen as the team owner – if they are able to secure a postseason spot in Atlanta.
If the Mets win twice, they will leave Atlanta with a three-game lead with three to play and will own the tiebreaker by virtue of winning the season series.
“I don’t want to get too far ahead,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We have to enjoy the fact that we won this series against a really good team. Enjoy the day [off on Monday], and then we’ll be ready. We’ll be ready. But I don’t want to get too far ahead. You’ve got to continue to take care of business, one-game-at-a-time mentality, and do whatever you need to do to get the job done. That’s what we’ll do: Be ready for Tuesday’s game.”
Several key Mets are still on the roster who played in the 2022 series: Nimmo, Pete Alonso, Edwin Diaz, Francisco Alvarez and Francisco Lindor, who late Sunday night sounded unlikely to return on Tuesday from the back injury that has caused him to miss the last seven games.
“It’s hard [to say],” Lindor said about his possible availability on Tuesday. “I want to see how I wake up [Monday].”
One key Mets figure who was not in Atlanta during the 2022 series is Mendoza. He was the Yankees’ bench coach at that time. Mendoza scoffed at the notion that these Mets had this series circled on their mental calendars as a chance for payback.
“No, I don’t think [so],” Mendoza said. “We’ve got to go to Atlanta and we’ve got to play well.”
Alonso, the pending free agent who was emotional after receiving two standing ovations in what may have been his last game as a Met at Citi Field, downplayed the pain from the 2022 series.
“People love to look at Atlanta,” Alonso said. “People forget that we got swept at home by the Cubs, and we lost two out of three to the Nationals [both earlier in September]. People forget that all the time. There's a lot of opportunities in those games.
“People look at the moment of Atlanta, but there's also so many other moments in a season, like whether it be a game here in May, a game or two here in June. I think for us, we were in every single game in that Atlanta series, and they were well-fought, tough games, and I feel like those games could have bounced either way. But I think people love to harp on that. But there's so many just tiny, little, miniscule moments that people forget about throughout the course of the season.”
One moment Mets fans won’t forget from 2024: Diaz striking out Kody Clemens – Roger’s son – with the tying run on third to close out the victory on Sunday night. Diaz pitched two innings after throwing 1 1/3 on Saturday for the save.
Mendoza called it “big-boy time.” Diaz said he’s ready for another big moment on Tuesday if it comes.
“I’ll be ready for Tuesday,” he said. “These are playoff games. We’ve been playing playoff games since early September. I’ve got to be ready every single day, and I know I will be ready on Tuesday.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
