The New York Mets seemingly were on the verge of undoing all they had accomplished to get back into the postseason race this summer after closer Edwin Diaz gave up a pair of game-losing home runs across three contests in late August.
New York then won five straight matchups to get to within half a game of the Atlanta Braves in the battle for the National League’s final wild-card playoff berth.
“Here we are playing meaningful games in September, but we haven’t done anything,” first-year Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said following Monday’s 4-1 win over the Boston Red Sox at Citi Field, as shared by Ben Krimmel of SNY. “We know where we’re at, and the mindset continues to be one game at a time, one series at a time and let the thing play out.”
As star shortstop and Most Valuable Player candidate Francisco Lindor mentioned last week, the 2024 Mets certainly have been through a “bumpy” season. They were 22-33 on the night of May 29 but, per Krimmel, have gone 52-31 across their last 83 games. An August swoon threatened to torpedo New York’s postseason hopes, but the Amazins began Tuesday in the middle of a 9-3 run.
“Proud of the guys,” Mendoza said on Monday night about his club’s undeniable resiliency. “It’s been a lot of ups and downs, but we never quit, we never gave up, we always continued to believe. We knew we had a good room, we knew we had good players and it was just a matter of time for us to not only prepare and get better at the things that we needed to get better at, but actually go out there and execute and get the job done.”
Lindor calling a players-only meeting back on May 29 has repeatedly been credited for the Mets saving their season. Mendoza praised his clubhouse following Monday’s victory for “holding each other accountable” while also “keeping it fun” whenever things go wrong, as such Diaz experiencing on-the-bump struggles.
SNY’s Danny Abriano noted on Tuesday morning that the 74-64 Mets could make things uncomfortable for the 77-61 Arizona Diamondbacks regarding the NL’s second wild-card playoff spot. Mendoza’s comments indicate he’ll first focus on his club trying to stay hot through Tuesday and Wednesday home games against the 70-68 Red Sox.