Resiliency has been hallmark of these Mets
Pete Alonso of the Mets scores a run during the seventh inning against the Padres in Game 2 of their National League Wild Card Series at Citi Field on Oct. 8, 2022. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Play better. Win games.
Whether that counts as a motto or mantra or mission statement, those four words have been the foundation of the 2022 Mets, a no-excuse operation piloted by the experienced hand of manager Buck Showalter and funded by a mega-billionaire fan in hedge-fun titan Steve Cohen.
Cohen’s cash, and his willingness to invest those resources in this year’s roster, removed money as an alibi for losing in Flushing. That left the responsibility with everyone else -- Showalter, GM Billy Eppler, the players in the clubhouse. As of Sunday night, the combined effort got the Mets to a do-or-die Game 3 against the Padres in the Wild Card Series, still a long way to go from the ultimate goal.
But considerably better from where the Mets were only 48 hours earlier, which was on the wrong end of a humbling 7-1 loss in Friday’s opener, loud boos from the Citi Field crowd still ringing in their ears. Nothing like a taste of your own baseball mortality to help a team refocus, and the Mets rode that desperation -- along with Jacob deGrom and co-MVPs Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso -- to force Sunday’s elimination match.
Was it coincidence that the Mets were the only team of this wild-card round to bounce back from an 0-1 hole rather than succumb to a sweep, like the Rays, Blue Jays and NL Central-winning Cardinals? Probably not, as the Mets wound up a wild card themselves by virtue of losing the East tiebreaker to Atlanta, the defending world champs, as both finished with identical 101-61 records.
All season, the Mets have played better when they absolutely had to, and won the games they needed to win -- with the notable exception of last weekend’s pivotal sweep in Atlanta. That series was a costly one, obviously, but the way to push that farther back in the rear-view mirror is to travel 3,000 miles to Los Angeles for a Division Series showdown with the Dodgers.
The Mets presumably developed the pedigree for a deep October run over the last six months, showing remarkable stability in a frenzied New York market while enduring lengthy absences by the co-aces of their rotation in deGrom and Max Scherzer. Their longest losing streak was three games -- done five times -- and they held on to first place for 175 days before blowing it with a bad weekend at Truist Park. On Sunday night, Showalter & Co. were holding the eraser, ready to wipe away the fading memory of any regular-season failures and pen a new script for October.
“They've done a great job of staying in reality,” Showalter said before Sunday’s Game 3. “There's so many things that can take you out of it ... I keep telling them stay together, stay together, stay together. I've been real proud of them. It's been a testament to their consistency because they just don't let something take them down a path they don't want to go, and it requires a lot of peer support in order to do it.”
Chris Bassitt, Sunday’s starter, referenced the corrosive qualities of playing in New York, describing the city as an “absolute gauntlet.” The Mets, much like a cross-country flight, are often prone to bouts of unanticipated turbulence. But this ’22 group has risen above all the distractions in ways that this skittish Queens franchise is only able to muster every half-dozen years or so.
Exhibit A was Game 2, when Lindor and Alonso -- both expected Top 10 finishers on this year’s MVP ballot -- smacked go-ahead homers to give deGrom leads of 1-0 and 3-2 that he was able to protect for six innings. Once the game got a bit thornier after deGrom’s departure, and Showalter anxiously called for Edwin Diaz in the seventh, the Mets rallied for four runs -- with batting champ Jeff McNeil busting it open with a two-run double.
Afterward, Lindor described the season-saving victory as “Mets-like,” which is to say a grinding, relentless, fundamentally-sound, team-wide effort. As a frequent observer of the Mets this season, we’d have to agree with the shortstop’s assessment. And true to form, they self-corrected just in time, maybe simply reverting to the tried-and-true methods that got them here.
“To be honest, these past two (wild-card) games have been completely different than the regular season 162,” Alonso said. “I mean, everything is -- I don't know. It's just different. There's something about postseason baseball, from what I've experienced, where every tiny little mistake is capitalized upon or any little slip up can be taken advantage of. Even though we've had some big games during the regular season, this is different. That's why we have to stay together, take it day by day, pitch by pitch.”
Alonso talked about how the Mets “flipped the script” on the Padres to stay alive for Game 3. What they’ve done to get this point has worked for the Mets. On Sunday, it was just a matter of playing better again, and winning one more game.
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.
