Mets reach playoffs, beat Braves and make comeback from 22-33 start

ATLANTA (AP) — These New York Mets know a thing or two about comebacks.

They saved their best for the last day of the regular season.

After overcoming deficits of 3-0 in the eighth inning and 7-6 in the ninth, they clinched a spot in the playoffs when Francisco Lindor’s two-run homer capped a close game. 8-7 victory over the Atlanta Braves in the opener of a makeup doubleheader Monday.

That was only fitting for a team that started 0-5 and hardly looked like postseason material when it fell 11 games below .500 in late May.

“Everyone had us out before the year even started, and here we are, man,” rookie manager Carlos Mendoza said.

The Mets advanced to a best-of-three NL Wild Card Series on Tuesday in Milwaukee.

New York lost the nightcap 3-0, but that hardly mattered. Pete Alonso and the Mets had already clinched the 11th postseason berth in team history.

“We’re a franchise that hasn’t had enough of these moments,” first-year president of baseball operations David Stearns said during the clubhouse champagne party after the twin bill. ‘We still have more work to do. I don’t think anyone here is satisfied with just one party.”

Lindor, who returned Friday from a back injury that had sidelined him since Sept. 15, came through with the big hit, launching a drive into Pierce Johnson’s Braves bullpen.

“It felt like it was in slow motion,” Lindor said. “Emotion. Emotion. I felt like I got the pitch I wanted. And you never know if the ball’s going to go out or not, but I feel like I got it 100%. We’re one step closer. Now we have to finish it. Finish it, finish it.”

When asked what he was thinking as he walked the bases, Lindor said, “My back hurts. I’m tired. I know how good Atlanta is.”

New York had lost 77 straight games since May 17, 2023, when trailing by three runs in the eighth inning or later.

“I’ve never seen a match like this before. It was just a total rollercoaster,” said owner Steve Cohen, “I had tears in my eyes as we went along and then I was in shock when we fell behind. And then, in just a big boy moment, Francisco rises to the occasion. I mean, he must have dreamed of that as a kid.”

It was a throwback to 1973, when the Mets also clinched a playoff spot the day after the season was set to end. At the time, they defeated the Chicago Cubs 6-4 to secure the NL East title.

“These are special moments. You have to enjoy these moments,” said Stearns, who grew up as a Mets fan in New York City. “This is the standard of where we should be.”

This year, a 10-3 loss to the Dodgers on May 29 completed a three-game Los Angeles sweep at Citi Field by a combined 18-5. New York fell to 22-33 in its first season under Mendoza and was six games out of the final wild-card slot, having to overcome seven teams.

Lindor called a players-only meeting. As the players explained it, the Mets raised a number of issues in the clubhouse that day and committed to positivity, effective preparation and a team-oriented approach focused on helping each other and winning games.

“We just opened the floor and talked about ways we can turn the tide,” outfielder Brandon Nimmo said at the time. “It just felt like a boiling point.”

Since then, with Lindor leading the way, they have the best record in the majors at 67-40 while outscoring opponents 541-433.

“It was an uphill battle,” Lindor said. “We put ourselves in a big hole and we kept climbing and kept climbing. We kept our shoulders above water. You know, after the All-Star break, we never believed we were drowning.”

One of New York’s biggest concerns entering the Wild Card Series is the availability of star closer Edwin Díaz, who rebounded from a blown save to pick up the win in the doubleheader opener. The right-hander threw 66 pitches over the past two days.

But the Mets haven’t been deterred all season.

“Nobody outside this clubhouse in April thought we were going to make the playoffs, that we had any chance,” Nimmo said. “We were able to go through really, really hard times and find ourselves on the other side and pull ourselves up and really come together and have each other’s backs and be able to culminate in this.”

The Mets have been baseball’s biggest spenders since Cohen bought the team ahead of the 2021 season. They won 101 games in 2022 and reached the playoffs, but lost a three-game Wild Card Series at home to San Diego. The Mets fell to 75-87 last year, when they had a record salary of $319.5 million and had to pay a luxury tax of $100.8 million.

They re-entered this year as the top spender with a projected $321 million, including $70 million in payments to teams to cover the salaries of traded players Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and James McCann. Their projected luxury tax was $83 million.

After winning the doubleheader opener, Cohen posted on X: “Have you ever seen a match like that? I’m so proud of this team. Meet fans, go out and celebrate.”

“This was such a huge group effort,” Alonso said. “We earned it.”

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