How long has it been since the Mets last faced the Dodgers?
So long that the last time the two teams played, “OMG” and Grimas were just an acronym and a fictional character in fast food.
In late May, neither could have imagined that the National League Championship Series was still on the horizon.
The Dodgers, yes, but what about the Mets?
That's baseball.
The National League pennant will be decided on Sunday, starting with Game 1 of the National League CS between the Mets and Dodgers in Los Angeles.
The Dodgers defeated the Padres 2-0 in Game 5 of the National League Championship on Friday, joining the Mets in the National League CS spot.
It was the Dodgers who swept three games at Citi Field in May, sending the Mets below .500 in 11 games and sparking change.
The Mets held a players-only meeting.
Jose Iglesias arrived to help revive the lineup and helped become the soul of the team with the newly released song “OMG”.
After Grimas threw out the first pitch on June 12 and the team went on to win, the unofficial team mascot was born.
This will be the fourth postseason series between the coastal rivals.
The Mets won the last NLDS in 2015 on the back of Daniel Murphy.
The only NLCS matchup between the two teams took place in 1988, when the Dodgers surprised a Mets team that was hoping to win the World Series for the first time in three years.
Right now, those names are Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and they have enough star power to keep Southern California ablaze even during a power outage.
Follow The Post's postseason coverage of the Mets:
After weeks of scrambling, the Mets on Friday found themselves in the unfamiliar position of enjoying relative comfort while their next-round postseason opponents face stress.
The Mets held an afternoon team practice at Citi Field before the Padres and Dodgers play Game 5 of the National League in Los Angeles.
“It's nice to have an off day and reset.” [the pitching] And plan as much as you want,” manager Carlos Mendoza said on a Zoom call with reporters. “But I think it's more of a rest for our players, our position player group and the team as a whole. We've been going back and forth, traveling, playing some hard-fought games, so we've been trying to reset for the last few days and get our players back on track.” Being able to receive treatment is huge.”
As for pitchers, Mendoza wasn't ready to announce his rotation for the NLCS.
He said that was more a function of figuring out where the pitchers were among the starters than the uncertainty of which team the Mets would play.
Kodai Chiga, Luis Severino and Sean Manaea are all options for Game 1.
Manaea, who pitched on Tuesday, is the least rested of the members, but it will still be a normal fifth day.
Chiga, who returned from the disabled list last Saturday and pitched two innings, is still limited and will probably need a piggyback ride from David Peterson, but Tyler Megill is another possibility.
The Mets will practice again Saturday at Citi Field before heading to Southern California.
Brandon Nimmo enjoyed the downtime Thursday and Friday, but he also recognizes the Mets don't have the luxury of relaxing.
“The biggest thing is just not letting up, because we were able to play such a high intensity game and we didn't get a lot of rest in between,” Nimmo said. “[The off days] It's definitely great in terms of injuries, but we also need to stay mentally focused and we're trying to treat those. [workouts] Like the person in charge of the game. ”
