Your Friday morning dose of Mets and Major League Baseball news, notes, and links.
Meet the Mets
Coming off their Game 4 win over the Phillies on Wednesday night, the Mets had their first of three days off yesterday, a well-earned and much-deserved respite before they head out to California to play either the Padres or Dodgers to begin the NLCS on Sunday.
The start times for the first three games of the NLCS have been announced.
Jeff McNeil has a really good shot at being included on the Mets’ NLCS roster.
Jay Jaffe wrote about Jose Quintana’s excellent work for the Mets in this postseason.
Laura Albanese wrote about the Mets’ embrace of mascots, songs, and a pumpkin.
Jayson Stark wrote about Francisco Lindor’s surreal grand slam, as did FanGraphs’ Matt Martell.
Matt Harvey joined the SNY studio crew and offered praise for the Mets’ starting rotation. Seeing Harvey back in the fold with all things Mets lately has been great.
What happened to the last-out baseballs in some of the Mets’ recent wins? Tim Healey has you covered.
Hadji celebrated his twenty-second birthday with beloved broadcaster and legendary Met Keith Hernandez.
Around the National League East
Phillies fans are going through it right now.
The Braves fired their hitting coaches and their catching coach after saying that the entire coaching staff would return next year.
Here are five questions facing the Nationals and five questions facing the Marlins this offseason.
Around Major League Baseball
The Yankees clinched a spot in the ALCS with a win over the Royals.
In a game that saw five different Tigers pitchers allow exactly one run, Detroit allowed the Guardians to even their series, setting up a Game 5 on Saturday night.
David Fry contributed to Cleveland’s win with a home run and a bunt.
Kerry Carpenter, the Tigers’ designated hitter, suffered a hamstring injury in the loss.
The Dodgers are trying to piece together enough pitching for Game 5 against the Padres tonight.
The Minnesota Twins are going up for sale.
Mariners second baseman Jorge Polanco underwent knee surgery.
The Rays released a statement following the damage to their stadium caused by Hurricane Milton.
Former Mets first-round pick Justin Dunn is throwing for scouts next week.
Qualifying offers will be worth $21.5 million this offseason.
Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue
Brian Salvatore wrote about Game 4 of the NLDS being a great representation of the Mets’ 2024 season.
Whether you’ve heard it once or a thousand times, it’s as good a time as any to listen to Howie Rose’s call of Francisco Lindor’s grand slam.
That call is on a couple of new shirts from released by our friends at BreakingT.
This Date in Mets History
Long before spending his age-40 season as a member of the Mets, Orel Hershiser shut them out in Game 7 of the NLCS on this date in 1988. Ending on that note would be too much of a bummer, though, and you should check out the box score from the Mets’ drubbing of the Dodgers in Game 3 of the NLDS in 2015.