Mets return to Atlanta for first time since last year's dramatic playoff clincher
THe Mets' Francisco Lindor, left, Jose Iglesias, left center, David Peterson, right center, and Brandon Nimmo, right, celebrate in the dugout after taking the lead in the eighth inning of a baseball game against Atlanta on Sept. 30, 2024, in Atlanta. Credit: AP/Jason Allen
In the past, when the Mets headed to Atlanta for the first time in a season, it conjured up all kinds of terrible memories.
House of horrors. Demons needing to be exorcised. That kind of vibe.
On Tuesday, the Mets will play Atlanta for the first time this season as they open a three-game series at Truist Park. This time the memories from their last visit are nothing but sweet.
No Mets fan will ever forget the emotional roller coaster that was Game 161 of the 2024 regular season. The Mets went into Atlanta for a makeup doubleheader on the day after the last day of the regular season. Both teams needed one win to clinch a playoff berth.
The Mets were sure of themselves going in because of their amazing late-season surge.
But it was Atlanta. A place where Mets dreams often went to die. What Mets fan didn’t fear a crushing doubleheader sweep, and who could blame them if they did?
The Mets fell behind 3-0. They scored six runs in the eighth inning. Atlanta scored four in the bottom half to take a 7-6 lead. Francisco Lindor hit a two-run homer in the ninth to give the Mets the final lead of the day. They won, 8-7, but because of an MLB decree, they didn’t get to spray bubbly until after Game 2, which Atlanta won to clinch a wild-card berth of its own.
It was one of the most incredible days in Mets and baseball history. And it led to more magic for the Mets in the playoffs, from dramatically beating Milwaukee in the Wild Card Series (thanks to Pete Alonso’s go-ahead home run in Game 3) to dispatching the NL East champion Phillies in four games in the Division Series to giving the eventual champion Dodgers a much tougher fight (as it turned out) in the NLCS than the Yankees would give them in the World Series.
So the demons from Atlanta are gone, right? Especially given that the Mets — even after a three-game sweep at the hands of Tampa Bay — went into Monday leading the division by 2 1/2 games over the Phillies. Third-place Atlanta is 31-39 after getting off to an 0-7 start.
“Sure,” Brandon Nimmo said on Sunday. “A little bit. Some of it, no doubt. But also, Atlanta is always going to be a place to go to battle. For me, every time I've gone in there, it's been getting ready for battle and knowing that you're going to play a hard-fought game. I don't think it's any different this year. I don't really care what their record is. They're a good team and I know that they can strike at any moment. So for me, I'm going in there with the same mindset, and it's that I'm getting ready for a dogfight.”
Mets broadcaster Howie Rose called the Mets’ Sept. 30 doubleheader opener “the most unique regular-season game they've ever played.”
The stakes won’t be anywhere near as high this week. Rose pointed out that a lot of the Mets’ horrible history took place in the 1990s at Atlanta’s previous stadium, Turner Field, although getting swept late in 2022 to blow the division was a true Truist low point for the Mets.
“I’d like to think that a lot of those demons were naturally exorcised when they changed ballparks,” Rose said. “There's not the body of work of overall torture at whatever they call it — Truist Park. Certainly the Mets had a chance to put them away in ‘22 and went in there and didn't do it, so I guess that added some fodder to the speculation that there might be some carryover effect from Turner.
“I think symbolically, if you look at not only that they won that first game [last season] but how they won it — it was not only satisfying, I think it serves to tell us that it's a new era in a lot of ways.”
Seven of the Mets’ next 10 games are against Atlanta. Good test of that theory.
Yes, the Mets appear to be the better team in 2025. But as the 2024 Mets can tell you, the standings midseason don’t always reflect what will happen in October (or on the last day of September).
The Mets came back from 11 games under .500 in late May to have a glorious run last season. Atlanta, which saw its six-year streak of NL East titles snapped in 2024, won the World Series in 2021 after losing star Ronald Acuna Jr. to a torn ACL in July and going into the All-Star break at 44-45.
So anything can happen in a game, in a series, in a season.
Still, for the Mets, it would feel nice to stomp all over Atlanta this week. After kicking out the demons, don’t even think of allowing them back in.
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.
