Was tough October competition too much for Mets?
Jacob deGrom #48 of the Mets leads his team on the field for Game 2 of their NL Wild Card Series against the San Diego Padres at Citi Field on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022. Credit: Jim McIsaac
For six months, the 2022 Mets were a first-place team and a World Series contender. When the calendar flipped to October, however, something changed.
In the season’s four biggest games, the NL East-deciding trip to Atlanta followed a week later by Friday’s opener of the Wild Card Series at Citi Field, the Mets didn’t look like themselves. The team that rolled to 101 wins, the second-most in franchise history, lost all four.
But the downturn that nearly ended the Mets’ season was reversed in bold fashion Saturday night, and not a moment too soon. The defeated the San Diego Padres, 7-3. Facing elimination, Jacob deGrom didn’t blink in what could possibly be his final start in Flushing as he provided six solid — if not spectacular — innings while Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso both smacked go-ahead homers to crank up the otherwise sputtering offense.
After a wobbly week against playoff-caliber foes, the Mets found their postseason legs just in time, perhaps shrugging off some October jitters in the process. Now they have the redemption-seeking Chris Bassitt if they hold on for Sunday’s do-or-die Game 3, and a renewed confidence that seemingly had abandoned them during last weekend’s sweep in Atlanta and Friday’s 7-1 mauling of Max Scherzer by the Padres in Game 1.
Manager Buck Showalter even summoned the trumpets in the seventh inning to unleash Edwin Diaz a bit early in a move that surprised the sellout crowd of 42,156 as it took a few minutes for the fans to find their “Narco” groove. Back in 2016, his last playoff appearance with the Orioles, Showalter was universally lambasted for never using star reliever Zack Britton as Baltimore lost the wild-card game to the Blue Jays in 11 innings.
But Showalter wasn’t going to make the same mistake again, not after deGrom got him through six innings, on 99 pitches, with a 3-2 lead. Diaz was touched for a single on a line drive that nicked off Lindor’s outstretched glove and that was it. For the seventh, anyway. Incredibly, Showalter sent him back out for the eighth — after the Mets had just spent 45 minutes tacking on four runs with him cooling on the bench.
Saturday’s outing wasn’t vintage deGrom. He was still firing 100 fastballs, but much more slider-reliant in striking out eight. Bottom line, he kept the Mets in front, and that’s something three aces at the front of the rotation hadn’t been able to do in big spots recently.
The Mets were able to deploy Max Scherzer twice during the past week’s pivotal games, along with deGrom and Bassitt, yet over a combined 19 innings, their elite trio was hammered for 24 hits, 18 earned runs (8.53 ERA) and 10 homers (six served up Scherzer alone).
Offensively, the Mets had an abrupt reversal of fortune, too. During the regular season, their .269 batting average with runners in scoring position was tied for third-best in the majors with the Phillies and their .788 OPS in those situations ranked sixth overall. But during these pivotal four games, the Mets were 6-for-29 (.207) with RISP, left 30 on base and got outscored, 21-8.
Problem was, the team’s twin MVPs — Lindor and Alonso — were mostly missing during that stretch. Lindor was 2-for-16, Alonso 4-for-14 and neither one had an extra-base hit. But with the Mets clinging to their playoff lives, Lindor launched a 403-foot homer off Blake Snell with two outs in the first inning. Alonso snapped a 2-2 tie leading off the fifth by hitting Nick Martinez’s first pitch deep into the leftfield seats.
That helped relieve some of Friday’s frustration, after the Mets went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position in the Game 1 loss, and they piled on with four more runs in the seventh. Finally, the Mets’ lineup looked re-energized, setting the tone rather than trying to play catch up as they had against the defending world champs last weekend and the Padres in Game 1. Maybe they were back to feeling like a 101-win team again.
Some, like Scherzer, Bassitt and Francisco Lindor, had faced playoff-type pressure before, but never wearing a Mets uniform. Others, like Alonso, were experiencing it for the first time. Either way, it’s a real thing that has to be dealt with. And while most players try to downplay the significance, Bassitt admitted before Saturday’s Game 2 that it is tangible entity and can’t be shrugged off easily. Everyone feels the heat.
“Yeah, anyone that says no is a liar, I'll tell you that — 100%,” Bassitt said. “I've told a lot of guys on the team who haven't been in the playoffs, listen, whoever can just be themself the most I think has the biggest advantage. The moment is already massive. The adrenaline — you don't need Red Bulls anymore. You're good.
“The crowd is already going to be crazy. You can't kind of ride the crowd. You just got to be yourself, and that's it. I think whoever can make the moment not as big as it is is going to have an advantage there.”
For once this October, the Mets were able to shrink the moment in their favor for Game 2. To settle in comfortably, at home at Citi Field, and get back to work saving their World Series dreams.
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.
