Thursday marks an overlooked anniversary for the Mets, although it is one that should actually be laser-locked in the organizational memory and summoned every day.
There were a lot of breathtakingly wonderful moments from their great October surge of ’24. Francisco Lindor had two of them: the ninth-inning blast in Atlanta in Game 161 on the day after the regular season ended that secured the postseason, and the grand slam off Philadelphia’s Carlos Estévez that all but clinched the NLDS. Pete Alonso had another, his forever blast off Devin Williams in Milwaukee.
In truth, the high-water mark for the Mets in 2024 — and maybe for the last 39 years, excepting their trips to the World Series in 2000 and 2015 — was right around 8:15 or so on that night of Oct. 16, 2024. The Mets had split the first two games of the NLCS at Dodger Stadium. They now had three straight games at Citi Field, and only a week earlier they’d made the Phillies quake in their stirrups across 18 intimidating innings.
“We believe we can win any game we play in this building,” Luis Severino had said the day before, and in the moment it just seemed like the reciting of a fact, nothing close to a boast. The Mets knew if they held serve at home, they’d never have to play in L.A. again.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
