It's okay to dream now. that's right. It's okay to start a little game by connecting the dots in your head and envisioning the best-case scenario. It's okay to feel good about Sean Manaea in the bullpen game against the Dodgers in Game 6, especially considering what happened last time. And certainly, it's okay to start thinking carefully about what happens next.
it's okay. that's right. The Mets have given you just that. On Friday, the Mets proved they want to get back on the plane to Los Angeles as much as you want them to. Pete Alonso's first blast got the party started. The game ended with six sure outs from Edwin Diaz.
Meanwhile, the Mets' brigade provided all the big hits they've missed in the past two games. Sure, there was a bit of drama as the Dodgers are relentless and the Mets always make sure to stress you out more than you care for. But every time the Mets got closer, they got further and further away.
In the end, the total was 12 for the Mets and 6 for the Dodgers.
By the end, 43,841 True Believers started their day singing “My Girl” with the real-life Temptations, and, knowing there was another baseball game in Los Angeles on Sunday night, sang “Meet the Mets.” I ended the day humming this. Indeed, I was already dreaming, so why didn't I dream? The Mets are back in the game. They are back in the picture.
It's okay to dream. that's right.
“We've been facing elimination for the past month,” Diaz said. Diaz retired six of the seven Dodgers he faced, including the formidable troika of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. “We had to do our job. We did our job.”
They did. This will give them at least two more days of baseball season. Five days after the Dodgers' Jack Flaherty made the Mets look like a JV team in Game 1, suffocating them over seven innings, the Mets raked and manhandled Flaherty, taking leads of 3-0 and 8-1. I was disappointed.
David Peterson started it all. With many of the fans still not drinking their leadoff beers, he faced second and third base and no one was out, but when Ohtani inexplicably failed to break from third base on Teoscar Hernandez's grounder to shortstop, he achieved a big break.
The Dodgers were on the verge of silencing the crowd early for the third straight game, but Freeman's laser hit Alonso's glove and Peterson egged on Tommy Edman, the Mets' standout player throughout the series. The crowd erupted. The Mets were still alive.
“Focus on executing one pitch at a time,” Peterson said. He got tired later and didn't make it to the end of the fourth inning, but he did his part on that eight-pitch pitch that shut the door in the bottom of the first inning for the Dodgers. “It's a privilege and an honor to get the ball in a situation like that. I never take it for granted.”
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A few minutes later, Alonso fired a shot into orbit and by the time it landed, it was 3-0. The Mets were determined to get on the plane in time for training scheduled for Saturday afternoon. They were instrumental in keeping this crazy story going. And it continues.
“The atmosphere in the dugout changed when I saw Pete do what he does best,” he said, singing along to Temps on the video board, to the overwhelming joy of the crowd. Francisco Lindor, who was determined to do so, said: . He vowed the Mets weren't going to go easy on Thursday.
On Friday, he helped make that happen.
“We have to believe in each other,” he said. “You have to believe in what's happening here. If you don't believe in it, you shouldn't be here.”
That's what the Mets believed. The crowd believed it and kept the decibel level at 11 even as there were a few moments of reaching for Rolaise in the pocket and as Andy Pages continued to fire rockets over the left field wall.
(Dodgers with two home runs in postseason games: Duke Snyder had two, and Andy Pages had them. Here's the list.)
Carlos Mendoza made two key lineup changes that paid off, with Jesse Winker on base three times, scoring three runs, and hitting an RBI triple as City looked to drown out the planes landing at neighboring LaGuardia Airport. It became. Jeff McNeil had two RBIs on two sac flies, the second of which was a home run by Mookie Betts off Ryne Stanek, which drew cheers from the stadium after the Mets' lead was cut to 10-6.
And, oh yeah, the kid Mendoza stuck with, Francisco Alvarez, had three hits and one RBI. So some people suggested that the humble narrator at the front of the line should take a seat, which gave him four hits.
“We have momentum,” Alvarez said. “You can feel it.”
Of course you can. The Mets can take one more flight. They have at least one more game, at least two days left in the season. Please listen. Please really listen. they really believe.
“We can beat them,” Diaz said without a hint of bravado, just faith.
Why not? And why can't you start dreaming? It's okay to do that now. it's okay. that's right.
