With two hurdles left to clear, Mets show they're capable of winning it all

The Mets' clubhouse celebration was as loud and raucous as you would expect, but in the end, the most memorable reaction I saw was on the field, after the final out.

As players milled about, hugging one another, Brandon Nimmo stood alone just beyond second base, looking around the ballpark in awe, taking in the moment as the capacity crowd was still standing and cheering. And as clear as could be, Nimmo said, “Oh, my God.”

When I asked Nimmo in the clubhouse about the moment, he said he was thinking about the long road traveled, for him as a first-round draft choice from Wyoming, and for this 2024 Mets team that started 0-5 and then 24-35 before the great turnaround that led to Wednesday’s night’s NLDS victory, the first series-clinching ever for the Mets at Citi Field.

“It was a lot to take in,” Nimmo said. “There’s so much emotion. It takes so much hard work to get to this point. This is what I dreamed of when I was drafted in 2011, and there’s been so much change since then, I’m the only one that’s still left.

“So I wanted to take it in and feel like I was sharing it with the fan base. It’s unbelievable. That’s really what I was thinking. It’s what you play for. The moment just kind of hit me.”

OMG indeed.

The Mets are still two huge steps from a championship, but there can be no doubt now whether they’re capable of winning it all this season.

After all, they just outplayed the Philadelphia Phillies and left no doubt about it, winning in four games and coming oh-so close to a three-game sweep.

The same Phillies who ran away with the NL East title and for a long time looked like the best team in baseball.

The Mets outpitched them, out-hit them, out-defended them, and out-clutched them, too.

In the clincher, on a night when they left a small army of runners on base through the early innings, they needed one more MVP moment from Francisco Lindor to finish off the Phillies by the score of 4-1.

His grand slam in the sixth inning not only erased a 1-0 deficit but set off pandemonium at Citi Field, leaving no doubt the Mets would get their clinching on this night and avoid a Game 5 showdown with old friend Zack Wheeler.

Phillies manager Rob Thomson recognized the urgency of the moment, as the Mets loaded the bases in the sixth against reliever Jeff Hoffman, and decided to make his stand right there by bringing in his closer, Carlos Estevez.

The right-hander challenged Lindor with high heat. He threw two 100 mph fastballs, then 99, and, on a 2-1 count, came in with another 99 that caught too much plate, and Lindor did what he’s done so often for this team in 2024, and especially in the heat of the race in August, September, and now October.

He delivered when it counted most, hitting a grand slam that changed everything, making up for all the early frustration, and who knows where it leads from here.

With that in mind, it may have been a season-changing moment as well, yet Lindor reacted with little outward emotion as he rounded the bases and reacted with his teammates.

“A lot of people are asking me why I’m not reacting,” Lindor said afterward. “I am reacting. I’m celebrating inside but the job is not finished. 

“I want to win it all. Then this will be a team that will be remembered here. I feel like we have what it takes. I mean, Philly is a great team. For our pitching staff to hold them down the way they did, it shows how good they are.”

Yes, if anything stood out in this series, other than the late-inning rallies that again were evidence of this team’s grit, it was the starting pitching that held an explosive Phillies’ offense in check throughout the series.

On Wednesday night, Jose Quintana dominated the Phillies into the sixth inning, extending his streak of brilliance that has seen him give up just two earned runs over his last six starts.

In addition, Sean Manaea and Luis Severino overmatched the Phillies, to different extents, and with Kodai Senga ready to take on a bigger role in the next series, the Mets have a wild card now for their beleaguered bullpen in David Peterson, who pitched 2.1 crucial innings in the clincher to get the ball to Edwin Diaz.

And so when it was all over the champagne was drying in his hair, Carlos Mendoza was asked what was the difference for the Mets in the series, and he pointed first to the “really good at-bats,” especially late in games, that he believes speaks to the confidence with which this team is playing.

But he made it clear he believed it was mostly about the pitching that didn’t give an inch to an imposing lineup.

“We attacked and we also expanded the zone and got them to expand,” he said. “That’s an aggressive team we played. They’re going to come at you and we didn’t back down from it. We made pitches against their best hitters. We’ve got the guys who can do it.”

At this point, in fact, these Mets are far from a Cinderella story. They’ve been one of the best teams in baseball for several months and now they’ve proven they’ve got the right stuff in October as well.

But none of that makes it any less remarkable, considering the expectations going in and the disastrous start to the season.

So for guys like Nimmo, in some ways the last man standing, or Lindor, who had to win over a fan base that for a long time couldn’t see past his $341 million contract, this was a night to remember in so many ways.

As Lindor said with a smile, “The road has been curvy. But I wouldn’t want it any other way.”