Mets drive their hero-laden bandwagon back to adoring fans at Citi Field
Mets fans react in the stands while they watch the Mets and Brewers game at a watch party at Citi Field in Flushing on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. Credit: Morgan Campbell
When the Mets departed Citi Field on the night of Sept. 22 after beating Zack Wheeler and the Phillies on ESPN, they had a two-game lead for the third NL wild-card spot with Hurricane Helene racing them to Truist Park.
Few, if any, people outside the clubhouse truly expected the Mets to return to Flushing this season. Not only was a playoff spot far from guaranteed, as the final week wound through Atlanta and Milwaukee, but surviving the first round — with all three of those games at the higher seed’s ballpark — made this the Everest of uphill climbs.
In reality, it was much harder than anyone had imagined. Yet the Mets successfully completed a 15-day stress test, including the most electrifying never-say-die stretch in franchise history, to earn their way back to Citi Field, which will host Tuesday night’s Game 3 of the Division Series against the Phillies.
“It’s incredible,” manager Carlos Mendoza said Monday, a little more than 12 hours after the Mets’ motorcade arrived from Philly. “I think you could write a book. You could make a movie . . . But that’s what makes baseball such a beautiful sport and probably the best sport. You can’t predict baseball. There’s going to be ups and downs, and that’s part of it. And now here we are, you know?”
After the Mets won that last game at Citi Field, Mendoza predicted they’d be back. Pete Alonso, a pending free agent, also had a sense that the win over the Phillies wouldn’t be his last home game in orange-and-blue. At the time, such talk was easy to overlook. The Mets were essentially the best team in the majors, record-wise, for nearly four months (65-38), but the hurdles preventing a 2024 return to Seaver Way felt almost insurmountable.
Don’t forget, the Mets also were faced with having to do it without team MVP Francisco Lindor, whose back injury knocked him out of the starting lineup for eight games down the stretch. Lindor didn’t play at all during the final week at Citi Field, resigned to giving rehab updates that included a spinal-area injection designed to numb his back, reducing the pain and swelling.
Considering how little Lindor could do physically the last time the Mets were home, his road recovery was nearly miraculous, and they wouldn’t be hosting the Phillies for Game 3 if he had remained on the shelf.
On Sept. 30, Lindor’s two-run homer in the ninth inning helped to clinch the Mets’ playoff berth in the opening game of the Atlanta doubleheader, only the first of multiple “instant classics” played last week. With the Mets three outs away from elimination in Milwaukee, Lindor drew a leadoff walk (off an 0-and-2 count) that set up Alonso’s season-saving three-run homer.
As for the aching back, Lindor considers that behind him now. He was among a handful of Mets to show up Monday at Citi Field, as Lindor still requires plenty of maintenance for the condition, but he sounded optimistic about his ability to perform this October.
“I feel stuff here and there,” Lindor said Monday. “But it’s much easier to bend, to move around and jump. I’m not as timid to do stuff. I feel free. I feel good.”
Expect a thunderous ovation Tuesday for Lindor, who was reduced to spectator status during the Phillies’ previous visit to Queens. And of course for Alonso, who was down to his final swing in a Mets uniform before launching his legacy-restoring homer that bounced the Brewers.
The vibe around these Mets is totally different from the team’s last trip to the playoffs in 2022, when Buck Showalter’s crew limped to the finish line, got swept in Atlanta to fumble the NL East title, then lost two of three to the Padres — at Citi Field — to exit October in the wild-card round.
Back then, the Flushing crowd seemed almost anxious rather than excited for the Mets’ first playoff appearance since dropping the do-or-die wild-card game, also at home, to the Giants in 2016. We can say with some certainty that Citi Field is going to be much more fired up for these Mets, a refuse-to-lose roster that grew in confidence as the breathtaking wins piled up on the road.
“We’ve all been talking about what this place is going to be like,” said Sean Manaea, Tuesday’s starter. “There’s definitely a sense of rejuvenation. The road can be crazy, but I’m looking forward to feeding off that energy.”
The Mets became experts at silencing sellout crowds in Atlanta, Milwaukee and Philadelphia. Even in Sunday night’s Game 2 loss to the Phillies, with Citizens Bank Park roaring at max volume in the ninth, Mark Vientos turned it library-quiet with his tying two-run bomb into the leftfield seats.
For once, the Mets’ heart-stopping heroics fell short when the Phillies rallied to even the series, but the past week’s momentum will be rolling into Citi Field at full tilt. And now, for the first time in what feels like forever, the Mets will have a stadium on their side.
“It’s going to be awesome,” David Peterson said Monday. “I think it’s going to be off the hook.”
No doubt. And the Mets have earned every decibel.
The Mets have never lost a Division Series. In four of the five they’ve played, they entered Game 3 with the series tied:
1999 vs. Ariz.: Tied 1-1, Mets won in 4 at Shea Stadium.
2000 vs. SF: Tied 1-1, Mets won in 4 at Shea Stadium.
2006 vs. LA: Up 2-0, Mets won in 3 at LA.
2015 vs. LA: Tied 1-1, Mets won in 5 at LA.
2024 vs. Phila: TBD
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.