Mets return to Citi Field for a hero's welcome, and another victory with NLDS Game 3 triumph

On a night when Citi Field rocked and roared like few others in the building’s 16-year history, the Mets put on a show like a team that never wants the party to end.

They rolled out a small army of lucky mascots and former All-Stars to welcome everyone back to Flushing. Keith Hernandez threw out the first pitch to John Franco. There was a pumpkin-carrying Grimace. Even Seymour Weiner popped up to wild applause on the big screen.

But the real mojo driving these Mets is what’s on display between the lines. And the sum of their amazing parts again was too much for the Phillies in Tuesday’s 7-2 win, a Game 3 victory that now has them one win away from advancing to the NLCS for the first time since 2015.

You want magic?

There was the magnificent Sean Manaea, who stifled the Phillies into the eighth inning, then exited to a thunderous standing ovation. Manaea even returned the applause — clapping into his glove — before tipping his cap to the adoring sellout crowd of 44,093. Afterward, Manaea revealed his sky-kiss on the way to the dugout was actually for his Aunt Mabel, who passed away that morning, so he dedicated the win to her.

Given how the Mets’ pieced-together rotation made it this far, there seems to be another source of strength, some added inspiration, always nudging them forward. For Manaea, after he looked wobbly in the sixth — opening with two walks — he whiffed Bryce Harper, then got Phillies’ Game 2 hero Nick Castellanos to line into an inning-ending double play.

“We can do incredible things,” Manaea said. “Just got to trust that.”

More magic? How about Pete Alonso, the homegrown slugger who refuses to say goodbye, giving the Mets a second-inning lead they’d never surrender with a rafter-shaking solo homer off the upper-deck facade in rightfield. Then later, Jesse Winker out-driving the mighty Alonso, with a rocket-blast of his own that seemed headed for the glowing Coca-Cola sign before landing halfway up that second deck.

On the defensive front, Tyrone Taylor made a superb barehand grab-and-throw on Alec Bohm’s one-hopper off the wall to cut him down at second base in the fourth inning when Manaea was protecting a 1-0 lead. Later, Starling Marte and Jose Iglesias both tacked on two-out, two-run singles in the sixth and seventh, respectively. OMG, indeed.

After so many white-knuckle finishes during the two-week road trip that launched this playoff run, the Mets mostly spared their fans the late-inning drama. But made this highly-improbable, yet hotly-anticipated homecoming worth the wait.

“Fantastic,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Let’s do it again (in Wednesday’s Game 4) and more so. Obviously I’ve got to stay in the moment. For us, it's a privilege to be able to put this uniform on and represent this franchise and do it for our fan base. They deserve this, and just know that we will continue to fight. We will continue to believe."

Playoff baseball, a rarity in Queens, was supposed to become an autumn ritual at Citi Field under Steve Cohen’s ownership. As identifiable with October as 50-foot skeletons and pumpkin-spice everything. Before Tuesday, however, the Mets’ only postseason trip of the Cohen Era left a lingering sour taste in Flushing, where the Padres turned out the lights in the wild card round to finish a disappointing 2022.

This year, the vibe was totally different. And in the hours leading up to Tuesday’s first pitch, Cohen was outside the ballpark greeting fans and taking selfies. During the pregame intros, Alonso and Francisco Lindor received the loudest ovations, which had to feel somewhat strange for a team that had experienced nothing but boos during their two-week odyssey trying to get back to Citi Field.

Once there, it was none other than Alonso — trying to guarantee his Mets career lasts as long as possible before free agency — was the first to ignite the Citi crowd by taking Aaron Nola, his personal BP pitcher (five HRs, 1.050 OPS in 50 previous ABs) off the second-deck facade in rightfield for his third homer in four playoff games. After weeks of being asked about potentially playing his last game for the Mets, Alonso seems determined to stack up as many of those chances as possible during this October run.

“Honestly, this was the goal,” Alonso said. “So collectively as a group we want to stay locked in, but hopefully we can have a lot more baseball here.”

As for Winker, he was picked up at the trade deadline and has meshed so seamlessly that it feels like he’s called Flushing home for years. Winker demolished Nola’s 94-mph heater, then stood statue-still in the batter’s box to admire every inch of the homer’s 399-foot flight.

“Hitting a pole-side pump like that in the playoffs, yeah, he deserves to stand there like that,” Alonso said. “The crowd just absolutely went bonkers . . . he honestly plays the game of baseball like a middle linebacker. You love the passion that he brings to the table.”

Next up for that table is the champagne for the first-ever clinching party at Citi Field, which now doesn’t feel all that far behind.

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.