The Mets haven’t relied on the big hit all season and they weren’t about to start Wednesday night in Game 4 of the NLDS. But they got to a point where they needed it badly, leaving eight runners on through the first five innings against the Philadelphia Phillies.
They loaded the bases on closer Carlos Estevez in the bottom of the sixth with no outs, only to run into the first out at home. But when the big one came, the Mets made it worth it.
Francisco Lindor teed off on a fastball over the plate, sending it into the visitor’s bullpen for a go-ahead grand slam, sending a sellout crowd of 44,103 into an absolute frenzy Wednesday night at Citi Field. The Mets defeated the Phillies 4-1 to advance to the NLCS for the first time since 2015.
“The whole time, I was like, ‘This is who we are. This is part of the story. This is part of the book, the movie, whatever you want to call it,’” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “And then he connects to that ball…”
Finally.
Finally, the Mets broke through. Finally, they made the deep playoff run they had been promising fans for years, and it’s still going, with the Mets awaiting the winner of the San Diego Padres-Los Angeles Dodgers series to see who they’ll face next in the best-of-seven NLCS.
Finally, there was a clinching celebration at Citi Field. It was the first time the Mets won a clinching game at home since 2000.
“Anytime you get a chance to champagne shower like it’s just such good vibes,” said Pete Alonso.
Lindor knows how tough it is to get this deep into the postseason. He went to the World Series with Cleveland in 2016, but hasn’t come anywhere close since then. Which is why he didn’t round the bases with celebratory enthusiasm, and why he waited until the final out to let it sink in.
“It’s not easy to be here,” Lindor said. “Enjoy it and don’t take it for granted, because it doesn’t happen every year. If it happens every year, great, but it’s not easy. Respect your opponent, work, grind, compete and give everything you’ve got, because these runs, they don’t happen every year…
“It don’t matter how good your team is. Nothing is promised.”
Left-hander Jose Quintana gave the Mets a chance to win with a solid outing, holding the Phillies to only the one unearned run over five innings (plus one batter) on two hits, walking two and striking out six.
The only problem was that the Mets couldn’t seem to give him any run support. Baserunners weren’t hard to come by, but hits with baserunners sure were for the Mets.
They loaded the bases in the first and second innings against left-hander Ranger Suarez and left them loaded both times. Pete Alonso was issued a leadoff walk in the third inning but Jose Iglesias struck out behind him and J.D. Martinez grounded into a double play. They put two on in the fifth with none out before going down in order.
The Mets had success against the Philadelphia bullpen over the weekend. They knew they needed to get to the ‘pen.
“This is a pretty much do-or-die-game for them, [so] we knew they were going to be aggressive with the bullpen,” Mendoza said. “So we just needed to keep it close from our end.”
The Phillies left six on through five innings, but they still managed to take a lead on an unearned run in the fourth. The energy started to drag. A nervous energy overtook the crowd as the Mets went down 1-0.
Quintana came back out for the sixth and gave up a leadoff double to Bryce Harper. Mendoza was quick with the hook, bringing in right-hander Reed Garrett to face the middle of the order. Garrett warmed up twice in Game 3, so the Mets knew they had to limit his pitch count.
But they also knew David Peterson matched up well against Bryson Stott. Garrett sandwiched a walk in between two strikeouts to get to Stott.
Peterson needed only three pitches to get Stott out. Mendoza played it perfectly, managing to win now instead of saving Peterson for a potential Game 5. The homegrown hurler bridged the gap to closer Edwin Diaz with 2 1/3 scoreless innings.
“He’s the reason we won the game,” pitching coach Jeremy Hefner told the Daily News. “Once they put the lefties in the starting lineup, we were going to have a righty in the middle. And then we knew Petey from Stott on, like that was the pocket for him. And he went out and did exactly what we asked him to do.”
The trumpets sounded. Diaz looked shaky, walking the first two hitters he faced before striking out pinch-hitter Kody Clemens. He settled down and retired the next two. Finally, down went the Phillies and on went the Mets.
They plan to keep moving on.
“We haven’t done anything yet,” Mendoza said. “Our goal is to win the last game. Here we are celebrating another step, but we’ve got another big series coming up, and we’ve got to continue to enjoy it.”