The Mets advance to their first NLCS in nine years by defeating the Phillies in the NLDS.
On June 8-9 of this year, the New York Mets and Philadelphia Philles faced off in MLB’s signature London Series. With the eyes of baseball upon them, the Phillies were the toast of baseball, landing in England with an MLB-best 44-19 record and World Series expectation. Meanwhile the world was on full LOLMets watch, as New York arrived with a 27-35 record amid speculation as to when a regular season sell-off of players would commence and exactly how many years it might be before the franchise could hope to content again. The Mets would return home with a split of the series, but still seemingly little to look forward to in 2024 besides whimsical promotions such as one that would see a random fast food mascot throw out the first pitch in their second game back from London. Four months later, one of those teams is on their way to the National League Championship Series.
And it sure isn’t the Phillies.
Things looked tense early, both teams perhaps a bit tight. While Jose Quintana looked strong early, the Mets squandered golden opportunities to score in each of the first two innings, leaving the bases loaded in each. In the bottom of the first, Jose Iglesias and J.D. Martinez struck out on curve balls in the dirt to short-circuit the threat—the second saw Brandon Nimmo ground out to first, with the Mets leaving six runners on over the first two innings.
After wasting those early opportunities, Ranger Suarez settled in for a couple of innings, and the Phillies took advantage of their first opportunity against Quintana in the top of the fourth. Bryce Harper worked a one out walk, and Nick Castellanos followed with a double to left to move Harper to third. He would score the first run of the game on a slow roller by Alex Bohm that Mark Vientos was unable to field cleanly. Quintana got J.T. Realmuto and Bryson Stott to fly out to limit the damage to one.
The Mets got yet another futile rally going against Suarez in the fifth when Francisco Lindor led off the inning with a double and Vientos drew a walk. Suarez struck out Nimmo looking, then yielded to Jeff Hoffman who retired Pete Alonso and Iglesias to strand to more Mets and keep the score 1-0.
Harper led off the top of the sixth with a double, chasing Quintana. It took both Reed Garrett and David Peterson, but the Mets wriggled out of the inning, with Garrett striking out Castellanos and Realmuto and Peterson coming in to get Bryson Stott to ground out and maintaining the one run deficit.
The Mets started yet another rally in the bottom of the sixth off of Jeff Hoffman, loading the bases again with no one out. A Francisco Alvarez ground out forced Martinez at home. With another opportunity looking as if it might go by the wayside, up came Francisco Lindor, in came Carlos Estevez. And out went the most recent biggest home run in Mets history over the past ten days—a grand slam into the right center field bullpen.
Peterson pitched a solid seventh and eighth inning to maintain the 4-1 lead—avoiding the tying run coming to the plate when a Bohm ground ball down the first base line just (maybe) went foul, which brought in Edwin Diaz for the ninth. He made it interesting by walking the first two batters, but settled in to retire the next three, striking out Kyle Schwarber to send the Mets into the NLCS, where they await the winner of the Dodgers/Padres series. Can’t wait. #LoveTheMets
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Big Mets winner: Francisco Lindor +38.7% WPA
Big Mets loser: Jose Iglesias, -17.3%
Mets pitchers: +27.3WPA
Mets hitters: +22.7% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Francisco Lindor’s Grand Slam. Duh. +36.0% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Nick Caatellanos double in the top of the fourth, -10.6% WPA