Mets fall to Dodgers in NLCS Game 6, are eliminated from MLB playoffs
LOS ANGELES — The fate the Mets long had feared — and fought — arrived Sunday night.
Heartbreak crept in over the course of days as the Dodgers established their superiority in the National League Championship Series, then hammered them when it hurt most, with their most reliable pitcher tiring and faltering just as the hitters disappeared.
The Mets lost to the Dodgers, 10-5, in Game 6 at Dodger Stadium, ending the best-of-seven duel as well as their improbable, joyful, bewildering season in a manner as abrupt as so many of their comebacks.
This time there was no revival, not enough of that signature sticktoitiveness. The Mets, upon falling behind 3-1 in the NLCS, needed to beat the Dodgers in three consecutive games to advance to the World Series. They got only one of those wins.
In the final moments, all of the Mets were at the top step of the dugout, arms on the railing, just in case they pulled out one last miracle. None came. It all ended with Francisco Alvarez grounding out to second base against Blake Treinen.
The Mets have not won the World Series in 38 years. Their only titles in 63 seasons of existence came in 1969 and 1986.
The Dodgers will play the American League-winning Yankees in the Fall Classic. Game 1 is Friday in Los Angeles.
“On this team, the window is closed,” Brandon Nimmo said. “And that’s a frustrating thing. It’s a sad thing. It’s very hard to swallow because I love this team so much.”
Pete Alonso said after his last game before becoming a free agent: “There’s so much for us to be proud of. What we overcame, how we became like brothers.”
And Sean Manaea: “I’m so proud of our group.”
That was the overarching sentiment in a tearful postgame clubhouse. The Mets entered the year as maybe a wild-card team if enough went right. They exited two wins away from the World Series.
Alonso and Harrison Bader approached Mark Vientos, who just finished a breakout year to establish himself as a member of the team’s core, for separate heartfelt conversations and words of encouragement. Vientos’ 14 RBIs were a Mets single-postseason record.
Manager Carlos Mendoza made sure to speak with Kodai Senga, who dealt with injuries all year and pitched out of the bullpen when the Mets were desperate late in the finale.
Nimmo crouched down to embrace a crying Alvarez, who in that moment couldn’t bring himself to stand.
“We’re both sad that this season has ended and that this chapter has closed,” Nimmo said of his message to the 22-year-old catcher. “It’s tough. You put your heart and soul out there every night. When it doesn’t work out — when your best isn’t good enough — it’s a tough pill to swallow. But just telling him he’s an amazing player. He has so much to look forward to. I can’t wait to continue to be his teammate. But also just agreeing on it, consoling each other on the fact that this chapter is closed.”
A postseason run that originated from and continued with the proverbial one big hit — Francisco Lindor in Atlanta, Pete Alonso in Milwaukee, Lindor again at Citi Field against the Phillies — ended with the Mets needing but lacking exactly that.
As was the case so often all summer and into autumn, the Mets had every chance to win. They matched the Dodgers with 11 hits but stranded 12 runners on base, including seven in the first three innings, when the game was close and another run or several could have shifted the tenor of the entire game. They went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position, including 1-for-7 in those opening three frames.
Perhaps the most painful missed opportunity presented itself in the sixth, when Evan Phillips walked Vientos and Alonso to load the bases with two outs. Jesse Winker stepped to the plate as the potential go-ahead run. The crowd of a not-quite-jam-packed 52,674 fell into a nervous buzz.
Winker flied out softly to leftfield as Teoscar Hernandez made a running catch to end the Mets’ last best threat.
That non-rally was representative of the Mets’ thin margin of error — in their last game, yes, but also for months.
In so many instances since their June turnaround, balls like Winker’s — or like Lindor’s to almost the same spot earlier in the inning — fell in. The Mets got a good bounce, a big break, sometimes from the opposing team and sometimes, it seemed, from the baseball gods themselves. And they would always capitalize, turning that extra opportunity into a big inning and usually a win.
The Dodgers didn’t let them.
“They played better,” said Jose Iglesias, the infielder/Latin pop star.
Alonso said: “They earned it.”
In his career-high 36th start of the season, a day after openly discussing how physically exhausted he has been, Manaea allowed five runs in two innings-plus. NLCS MVP Tommy Edman burned him for a two-run double in the first — turning the Mets’ one-run lead into a one-run deficit — and a two-run homer in the third.
What followed was an all-out, last-ditch attempt to save the season, as much as Mendoza could control such a bid from the dugout. He used his top four relievers by the end of the sixth, including closer Edwin Diaz to begin the fourth.
“It stinks, because you want to keep going,” Mendoza said. “But I just told the guys how proud I was because of not only we became a really good team, we became a family. And now we raised the bar. Expectations now [are] this is what we should strive for every year, to be playing deep into October. And we showed that this year.”
After half an hour, the tears yielded to smiles and laughs, aided by beers and just a bit of music. Most of the Mets were happy to linger. Showers and real-life clothes would be there when they were ready. Their season ended. Their time together didn’t have to quite yet.
“You can see it: Guys are still hanging out and talking,” Lindor said. “That’s something that wasn’t happening here. There’s something special going on in here. Ten, 15 years from now, guys are still going to talk to each other. I’m proud of that. There’s mixed feelings right now.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
