‘Storybook-type stuff’: Three reasons the Mets believe they can win the pennant
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Jesse Rogers, ESPN Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES — The New York Mets are down 3-2 to the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, facing two potential elimination games on the road, but they hardly seem fazed.
Been there, done that.
Remember the Mets’ come-from-behind road win to clinch a playoff spot on the Monday before the postseason began? How about the down-to-the-last-out victory they pulled off in the wild-card round, when Pete Alonso took Milwaukee Brewers closer Devin Williams deep in the ninth? New York’s subsequent four-game division series upset over the Philadelphia Phillies seems anticlimactic in comparison.
And then came Game 5 of this series on Friday. The Mets pummeled Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty for eight runs in three innings, keeping their World Series hopes alive after losing Games 3 and 4 at home the previous two nights.
Now comes their toughest test to date. At Dodger Stadium, with its hostile crowd of more than 50,000 fans, the Mets need two wins against the team with the best record in baseball. In other words, the Mets have the Dodgers right where they want them.
“It wouldn’t be our story if it didn’t go this way,” veteran J.D. Martinez said with a smile after the Mets’ 12-6 win in Game 5. “This is how we do things.”
New York is looking to become the ninth postseason team to win Games 6 and 7 on the road — and recent history is on its side: Just last season, the sixth-seeded Arizona Diamondbacks went to the World Series after beating the Phillies twice at Citizens Bank Park.
It can be done. Will it happen is another question. Here are three reasons Mets players believe they can — and will — pull it off.
1. Their starting pitching has ‘carried us all year’
The Mets will have Sean Manaea starting on full rest in Game 6, followed by Luis Severino if they make it to Game 7. Both have come up big this postseason, particularly Manaea. Meanwhile, the Dodgers have a bullpen game scheduled for Sunday, followed by a diminished Walker Buehler, who hasn’t won a game in October yet, in a potential finale. New York could also use Jose Quintana out of the pen in either game.
“You could make a case that one of the big reasons we’re here is because of our starting pitching and their ability to go deep in games,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said this week.
But Manaea, Severino and Quintana haven’t looked sharp in their starts against the Dodgers this series. Combined, they pitched a total of only 13 innings across Games 2, 3 and 4. It was the first sign of fatigue from them this month.
“We also have to understand where we’re at in the season and where they’re at physically,” Mendoza said, “They’re in territory now where nobody expected it.”
Then again, Flaherty seemed to hit a wall in his latest outing, and Buehler needed 90 pitches to get through four innings in Game 3. Both teams might be looking at some gassed pitchers.
All things being equal — workloads included — the Mets think their starting pitchers put them in a good position.
“You have to be able to rise to the occasion and do whatever is asked of you,” outfielder Brandon Nimmo said. “Those guys have done that. Everyone has seen how they’ve pitched. There is so much confidence there.
“It’s carried us all year.”
2. Their lineup ‘broke through the dam’
It’s hard to make a case that any offense can go toe-to-toe with the Dodgers, who scored 30 runs in the first four games of this series, while adding six more in a Game 5 defeat. Even without a healthy Freddie Freeman, Los Angeles has done plenty of damage. But so, too, have the Mets — especially recently.
The Mets view Game 4 as a turning point. They scored just twice in a blowout loss, but had 13 runners reach base. Then in Game 5, they launched a 14-hit attack and scored 12 runs.
“We’re capable of putting together games like this, especially when one through nine, we’re clicking, we’re not chasing,” Mendoza said.
That might be more than manager-speak. For one, the bottom of the Mets’ order is starting to do some damage. Catcher Francisco Alvarez, who has hit in the nine-hole each game this series, credits a conversation he had with Starling Marte as a confidence boost.
“He came to me and he told me, ‘Hey, be happy,'” Alvarez recalled. “‘Play your game. Don’t try to do too much.’ But the real thing from Marte is he doesn’t talk too much, and I feel like he talked to me from the heart, and I appreciate him doing that.”
Alvarez is four for his past five in the series, while Marte has gotten hot as well. Marte, who hit sixth in Game 5, has nine hits over the past four games after going 0-for-4 in Game 1. On Friday, the Mets’ lineup looked as lengthy as the Dodgers’.
“Preventing their starters from going deep in games and getting to their bullpen, that’s huge, especially over this marathon-type of a series,” Alonso said. “And as an offense, that doesn’t happen if you don’t have quality at-bats. We’re having them now.”
Nimmo said: “We broke through the dam.”
3. They have ‘storybook-type stuff’
The “Meme Team,” as some like to call the Mets, doesn’t mind the corny nature of looking to Grimace or a lucky pumpkin for inspiration. It works for them. Some teams give off a buttoned-up attitude when they come to work, while others go with the flow. New York fits firmly in the latter category.
“We’re a frickin’ zoo in here,” Martinez said. “Would we be the Mets if we weren’t?”
No one epitomizes that fun — and belief — more than Alonso. The longtime Met might be in his final days with the team — he’s a free agent after this season — but he won’t let that distract him. In fact, it has kept him grounded and motivated, looking to keep this dream season going for as long as possible.
“This is what we all live for and play for,” Alonso said. “This is such a blast. And I think all of us — we’re just relishing in the moment and we’re looking to capitalize on opportunities.
“It’s storybook-type stuff.”
Alonso arrived in Los Angeles with the team’s Playoff Pumpkin intact, which the slugger seems more intent to talk about than his game-changing home runs this postseason. It’s managed with special care.
“White-glove service,” Alonso told ESPN with a big smile. “The pumpkin is taken care of almost as well as the Stanley Cup.”
Alonso keeps the pumpkin in his luggage, but carefully transports it from plane to hotel, from hotel to bus, from bus to clubhouse.
“On the road I’ve taken it back to the hotel because I don’t want any clubbies or anybody messing with it,” Alonso explained. “It’s kept safe every day.”
Pumpkins, mascots and “OMG” signs won’t be in the batter’s box when the first pitch is thrown in Game 6. But for the Mets, these things are part of who they are. Playing like this, with an unwavering spirit even with their season nearly always on the line, creates a winning atmosphere. Ahead of two win-or-go-home games, New York is banking on it.
“It’s something you learn by being here for a while,” Nimmo said. “You learn to not panic. If any team can do it, we can. We’ve played with our backs against the wall all year. We’ve risen to the occasion. Some might say we’re at our best in this time.”
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Buster Olney, ESPN Senior Writer
The hiring of Skip Schumaker as a senior advisor may mean that the Texas Rangers have their future manager under contract.
But if current manager Bruce Bochy, who is likely to be inducted into the Hall of Fame once his career is over, wants to continue beyond 2025, the Rangers will enthusiastically welcome that.
According to one source, Bochy will have the latitude to continue if that’s what he wants.
“If [Bochy] wants to manage beyond 2025, [the Rangers] are good with that,” a highly ranked source told ESPN.
Bochy, who turns 70 in April, just completed his 27th season managing in the big leagues — for the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants before he became the Rangers’ skipper in 2023 — and ranks eighth all time in managerial wins with 2,171, the most for any current manager.
Next season, he will likely pass Dusty Baker and Sparky Anderson on the list. Bochy’s teams have won four championships — the Giants in 2010, 2012 and 2014, and the Rangers in 2023.
Schumaker, 44, is viewed as a rising star in the managerial ranks after his first two seasons, with the Miami Marlins.
Miami made the playoffs in 2023 and Schumaker was named National League Manager of the Year. But when the Marlins’ ownership effectively pushed out Kim Ng, the GM who hired Schumaker, he asked the team to void a 2025 option year on his contract, and he left the Marlins after the 2024 season.
One year into his tenure with the Padres, Mike Shildt has been rewarded with a two-year contract extension that ties the manager to San Diego through 2027.
The Padres announced the agreement Wednesday with the 56-year-old manager after they went 93-69, finishing five games behind the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West and claiming the top NL wild card.
“I am honored to continue leading this team toward Peter Seidler’s vision of bringing a World Series championship to San Diego,” Shildt said in a statement. “In collaboration with our players and coaching staff, we are committed to building on our success, serving our community and the City of San Diego, and delivering a winning team to our incredible and deserving fan base.”
San Diego swept a two-game wild-card series against the Atlanta Braves then took a 2-1 lead on the Dodgers in the best-of-five NL Division Series. Los Angeles bounced back to win the final two games 8-0 and 2-0.
The Padres tied for first in the majors with a .263 batting average and ranked sixth with a .745 OPS. Their 3.86 team ERA rated 12th, and their pitching staff’s 1,453 strikeouts came in sixth.
Shildt previously managed the Cardinals from 2018 to 2021, logging a 252-199 regular-season record and guiding St. Louis into the postseason in three of his four seasons. He was voted the NL Manager of the Year in 2019.
“As Mike demonstrated this year, he has an unwavering commitment to winning and a unique set of skills that got our group to perform at a high level,” Padres president of baseball operations and general manager A.J. Preller said in a statement. “He possesses a true love for this team and the game of baseball, and I am thrilled to continue to work together with Mike to bring a championship to the City of San Diego.”
Field Level Media contributed to this report.
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Ryan McGee, ESPN Senior Writer
Inspirational thought of the week:
Do you love me?
Do you wanna be my friend?
And if you do
Well then don’t be afraid to take me by the hand
If you want to
I think this is how love goes
Check yes or no
— “Check Yes or No,” George Strait
Here at Bottom 10 Headquarters, located among the giant concrete reinforcement pillars installed under the Indiana football offices to support Curt Cignetti’s self-confidence, we are still trying to process the ceaseless series of sea change/Earth change/mindset change/sleep-cycle change events that were thrust upon us over the course of only a few days’ time.
We had Halloween, turning the clocks back an hour, the release of a new Liam Neeson/Ron Perlman mob movie and a Week 10 slate that saw a gaggle of ranked teams pushed and/or upset by unranked teams, not to mention Pur-don’t and Northworstern going into OT.
And oh yeah, dummy me. I forgot the biggest event of them all. The one that was unfurling just as we were compiling these rankings Tuesday evening, Nov. 5, 2024. I am, of course, speaking of the #MACtion doubleheader of Boiling Green at Centralized Michigan and My Hammy of Ohio at Baller State. Oh, and the eve of “The Golden Bachelorette: The Men Tell All.”
With apologies to Joan Vassos, Jesse Palmer, Matt James, Tyler Cameron, Cleisthenes and Steve Harvey, here’s the post-Week 10 Bottom 10 rankings.
The good news is that the Golden (plated) Flashes, aka America’s last winless FBS team, did not lose their 18th straight game. The bad news is that it’s only because they didn’t play. Now they kick off Week 11 early with the first of four straight midweek games to end the season. It starts with a visit from fellow Ohioans Ohio, followed by a trip to fellow Ohioans My Hammy of Ohio, a visit from fellow Ohioans Akronmonious and then a trip to Buffalo, which isn’t in Ohio, but I’m pretty sure Ohio eats more Buffalo wings than any other state, so it feels like it is.
Brett Favre Funding U also managed to escape its open date without a loss ahead of hosting Marshall this weekend. The Olden Eagles are already eyeing their potential Pillow Fight of the Year of the Century in their season finale to Bottom 10 Waiting Lister Troy Bolton State. Actually, they’re already eyeing the weekend after that, when the season is finally over.
Speaking of the Waiting List, that’s where the Minors were just two weeks ago, but after back-to-back Pillow Fight losses to Fa-la-la-la-la La-la-la-Tech and Meh-dle Tennessee, they have jumped up off the bench outside and burst into the front door like me when the buffet hostess finally says, “McGee, party of one!” Now they will play in unprecedented Pillow Fight Three-peat against … yeah, like that hostess, we’re going to make you wait a minute.
Our old friends the Minuetmen also spent part of this fall on the Waiting List, but they answered the call of duty by following up their non-FBS win over Jack Wagner by getting housed by another Waiting List member, a fellow 2-7 squad out of the S-E-C, Miss Sus Hippie State. Now the Mess plays last week’s Coveted Fifth Spot winner Liberty. It’s always a weird headspace for a group of Revolutionary War soldiers to try to defeat Liberty.
The Tigers tumble down The Hill from the fancy-schmancy Coaches Poll top 10 into the Coveted Fifth Spot after losing to #goacc mid-packer Louisville. We were on the fence about whether to put Death Valley or Happy Valley into this slot, but our minds were made up after downing a bottle of refreshing water that had been winged at our heads from the Clemson student section.
Clemson fans threw debris onto the field after they were unhappy with a call.
Louisville scored on the very next play. pic.twitter.com/AI6SBYmRrM
— ESPN (@espn) November 3, 2024
I can hear the lobby conversation now. “Hey, Clemson, did y’all really just lose to Louisville and land in the Coveted Fifth Spot?” “Hey, FSU, did y’all really just lose by 24 points to North Carolina and is the only team you’ve beaten really Cal?” Then they both grab up their briefcases and head into the courtroom to explain why they are too good for the ACC.
The Buttermakers lost the B1G Bottom 10 Bowl presented by Rust-eze, falling to Northworstern in overtime. Now they finish the year with three of four games against top 10 teams in Ohio State, Penn State and Indiana. In related news, sources tell Bottom 10 JortsCenter that Purdue’s legendary engineering department is trying to invent one of those Tony Stark time machine thingies so they can fast forward to winter.
The New Owls have flown back into these standings after following up their first-ever win as an FBS program with their seventh-ever loss as an FBS program. Now they hit the road for their first-ever Pillow Fight of the Week, a matchup with border rival UTEPid. Told you we’d get to it.
If the Bottom 10 were a series “Game of Thrones” memes, this is where we’d see a photo of Boromir talking and giant white letters that read “ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY GET SMOKED 59-21 BY ONE-WIN UAB AND NOT END UP IN THE BOTTOM 10.” OK, sure, let’s go on and do it …
Working on this week’s #Bottom10 and, heads up northeastern Oklahoma… pic.twitter.com/7VUfH88njv
— Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) November 5, 2024
My OG Bottom 10 champs are back! The Panthers keep racking up moral victories. Their only actual victories came back-to-back in September over Chattanooga and Vanderbilt. So, if you’re scoring at home, and we are, Georgia State beat Vandy, who beat Bama, who has been ranked No. 1 and who beat Georgia, who has been ranked No. 1 and who beat Texas, who has been ranked No. 1. I almost printed this paragraph out on Georgia State stationery and nailed it to the door of the College Football Playoff selection committee meeting room at the Gaylord Texan, like Martin Luther at the Castle Church.
Waiting List: FA (not I) U, Akronmonious, Meh-dle Tennessee, WhyOMGing?, You A Bee?, Whew Mexico State, Temple of Doom, Utaw State, Charlotte 3-and-6ers, assistant coaches impersonating volcanos.
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