Detroit, Kansas City & San Diego each swept their Wild Card series on Wednesday, and for 7 innings it appeared that the New York Mets would do the same. However, Milwaukee scored 3 runs in the 8th inning, forcing tonight’s game three (7p, ESPN) to see who advances to play Philadelphia.
It would’ve been nice for the Mets to sweep, but it wouldn’t have been fitting. The Mets have seemingly had their backs against the wall since the 2023 trade deadline when they shipped out Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, David Robertson, Mark Canha and Tommy Pham for a boat load of prospects. The organizational reboot wasn’t supposed to get the Mets back into contention until 2025.
4 months ago, on June 2nd, the Mets stood at 24-35 and conventional wisdom believed that their new, and the Brewers old, President of Baseball Operations should sell assets to continue the rebuild. David Stearns did not agree. The Mets got hot on the field and wildly entertaining off of it (Grimace, OMG and yes, the Hawk Tuah girl). And on Monday, when it looked like MLB baseball, Hurricane Helene and their arch-rival Atlanta Braves were going to end their season for good, they came back not once, but twice to reach the playoffs. The Mets finished the season by winning 65 of their final 103 games.
Now conventional wisdom says regardless of what happens in tonight’s game, the 2024 season should be deemed a success. Under the helm of owner Steve Cohen, they’ve solidified their front office with Stearns, their coaching staff with Carlos Mendoza, their leadership with MVP candidate Francisco Lindor, and their young core with Francisco Alvarez, Mark Vientos and a quick cameo from Luisangel Acuna. Plus, while they have some important pending free agents to deal with including Pete Alonso, they also have a steady group of veterans in Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil, Sean Manaea, Kodai Senga and Edwin Diaz signed for next season and beyond.
Let’s face it, if you bleed orange and blue, or you will be on the field tonight wearing orange and blue, you don’t want this 4-month hot streak to end. You want your shot at the Phillies to see how far you can go in this “rebuilding year”.
Based on what we’ve seen from the Mets since June 3rd, we’d be crazy to bet against them.
