The Mets toasted to their first postseason berth since 2016 after Monday's 7-2 win at the Milwaukee Brewers, but they remained focused on the bigger picture at the same time.
"It's a lot of fun, right?" said second-year Mets owner Steve Cohen, whose franchise snapped a six-season drought but continues to scrap with the Atlanta Braves for the National League East Division crown. "I mean, it's a lot better than losing, right? But like I'll say, this is just the first step. I have high expectations. And so, I'd like to see us hopefully win it. If we can win the division, that'll be great. Obviously, Atlanta is a great team and will probably go down to the wire. And then we'll see what happens in the playoffs. I think this is a team that can go really far. And so, I'm looking forward to that."
Billy Eppler, New York's first-year general manager, echoed Cohen's sentiments with a mindset that evidently runs deep through the front office and manager Buck Showalter's clubhouse.
"We just want to keep winning games," Eppler said. "Show up tomorrow, be ready to play, be ready to win and that's a goal that's been set out by the organization and one that Buck's never lost sight of and never stopped messaging from that day. So that's where we're at."
Even Max Scherzer, fresh off a perfect six innings in his first start back from the 15-day injured list, did not let himself get too caught up.
"It's just our team, it's our organization," he said. "Steve's here. Just everybody who's involved in this is here, recognizing of how hard it is to win at the major-league level. And it means something to our organization, and it means something to our fans to be in the playoffs -- and those are the moments you play for, is to have these type of moments. But we also realize there's bigger moments to be had in the future. So it's smiles today, but it's grinding tomorrow."
While the Mets take a one-day-at-a-time approach, the team does not lack confidence entering October.
"I mean, I want to say that we can win it," said Pete Alonso. "We have talent, we can win in a lot of different ways, but the sky's the limit for us, to be honest. We just need to focus where our feet are, focus every single day on what we need to do and just come ready to play."