The New York Mets may have been eliminated from the playoffs during the National League Championship Series, but let’s look back at the miraculous run that they had in 2024.
On June 1st, about halfway through the Major League Baseball season, the Mets were in 4th place out of five teams in their division and were considered one of the worst teams in the MLB, even by their own players. But suddenly, as soon as June started, the Mets went on a roll. After winning just nine out of 28 games in May, the Mets won 16 out of 24 in June, shocking the league. From May 30th to June 29th, the Met’s star Francisco Lindor had a batting average of .340 (the average in the whole MLB this past season was .243). After June, the Mets streak continued, and they had the best record in baseball from June 1st to the end of the season.
After a long road series, the Mets finally found themself with two games left in the season in Atlanta. There was a three-way tie for the two spots of the National League Wild Card round between the Mets, Atlanta Braves, and Arizona Diamondbacks. Out of the two games against the Braves, if the Mets won both, the Mets and Diamondbacks would be in the playoffs. If the series was split, the Braves and Mets would be in the playoffs, and if the Braves won both, the Braves and Diamondbacks would be in the playoffs.
In game one, the Mets were down 3-0 in the eighth inning and went on a roll, scoring six runs in the eighth. The Braves were at the brink of loss but tallied another three runs, to put them ahead 8-7 in the last chance inning for the Mets. Francisco Lindor, the Mets MVP came up with a man on first and hit a miraculous two-run homerun to win the game 8-7 and secure a spot in the playoffs. The Mets defeated the Brewers in the Wild Card series with another historic comeback win, moving on to play the Philadelphia Phillies in the division series.
The Mets and Phillies are a familiar matchup. The two teams have been rivals for a while, and the Phillies won the Mets division, the National League East. The Phillies were favorites for the series coming in. The first two games were hosted in Philadelphia, and the Mets and Phillies split those two games 1-1. The following two games were in New York, after the Mets had not played a home game in multiple weeks. They crushed the Phillies in those next two games, winning the series. The start to the postseason was already amazing as the Mets won their first two series as underdogs with many memorable moments.
Then the real problem came: the LA Dodgers and Shohei Ohtani. Shohei Ohtani was by far the best player in the MLB and bound for the MVP (Most Valuable Player) award, with Lindor of the Mets right behind him. The Dodgers had the best record in baseball, and didn’t show any sign of stopping throughout the postseason.
Unfortunately, the NY Mets lost the NLCS 4 games to 2, as the Dodgers went on to win the World Series. If you were to tell any Mets fan in the first month of this season that they would go down to the Dodgers, two games away from the world series, they would not believe you.