'It can definitely be done': Mets need yet another improbable comeback

NEW YORK -- By the time Mookie Betts hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning of National League Championship Series Game 4 on Thursday, a sold-out crowd at Citi Field was distressed. The Dodgers had already spent much of the evening thoroughly outplaying the Mets, relying on Betts and fellow superstar Shohei Ohtani to create constant pressure in what became a 10-2 Mets loss.

The Mets now trail this best-of-seven series, 3-1. They will need to win three consecutive elimination games if they wish to advance.

They have the Dodgers, in other words, exactly where they want them.

“We’ve had our backs against the wall, for sure,” outfielder Brandon Nimmo said. “Now, we do again. So we’re going to do our best to add to this story and make some more magic.”

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What other way is there than to view the bleakness of this situation with pie-eyed optimism? This is, after all, the same team that was all but out of the playoff picture in late August and still a heavy underdog to make the tournament in mid-September. It’s the same Mets team that needed a pair of improbable late rallies in Game 161 to clinch a postseason berth in Atlanta, that required a Pete Alonso miracle to stun the Brewers in the ninth inning of NL Wild Card Series Game 3 and that -- even after all of it -- still needed to upset a favored Phillies team in the NL Division Series just to make it to this point.

Beating the Dodgers in three straight games is unlikely, of course. But was any part of this Grimace-fueled fever dream all that likely in the first place?

“I mean, this group has responded so well to adversity all year,” Alonso said. “The character of this team, the one word I can think of for the 2024 Mets -- other than ‘Grimace’ -- is resiliency. That’s just who we are.”

Jose Quintana struggled for the first time since mid-August, allowing more earned runs in Game 4 -- five -- than in his previous eight starts combined. Ohtani led off the game with a home run. Betts added a two-run double off José Buttó and a two-run homer against Phil Maton. Max Muncy reached base in his first four plate appearances to set a record for consecutive trips reaching safely in a single postseason.

The Mets never quite recovered, stranding a dozen men on base.

Asked what they need to improve in a win-or-go-home Game 5, shortstop Francisco Lindor responded: “Everything.” And that’s probably fair. The Dodgers have outscored the Mets by 21 runs so far this series, a margin that’s been surpassed only once in LCS history. New York pitchers are walking Los Angeles hitters at an historic rate. The Mets committed four defensive errors over the series’ first three games. The last seven pitchers to take the mound for them have all allowed at least one run.

And yet, their looming task is not impossible.

“I’ve been up 3-1 and I lost the World Series,” Lindor said, referencing his history as a member of the 2016 Cleveland team that lost three straight games to the Cubs to close out the Fall Classic. “So it can definitely be done.”

The Cubs team that beat Cleveland that October embodied many of the same traits as this Mets team -- spunk, resiliency and the like. These Mets have also rallied around a B-list McDonald’s mascot, a second baseman who moonlights as a Latin pop singer, a champagne-soaked pumpkin and more. By all accounts, the Mets genuinely like each other. By all accounts, they don’t want their season to end.

By all accounts, they’re uniquely built to make sure it doesn’t.

“We’ve gone through a lot this year,” said left-hander David Peterson, who will start Game 5 opposite Dodgers ace Jack Flaherty. “It’s made us who we are at this point.”

The Dodgers, one of the few teams who play in the same big-market waters as the Mets, like to say similar things about themselves. Their manager, Dave Roberts, called it an “us-against-the-world attitude that our guys have sort of taken on,” admitting that it’s “kind of ironic with the Dodgers, but I like that.” He spoke early Friday morning about making sure his team stays “hungry.”

Ohtani, Betts and company have also faced elimination twice previously this postseason. They know what it takes to avoid it. If anyone can put an end to the Mets’ fairytale, it’s the Dodgers.

Then again, they wouldn’t be the first team to let the Mets off the hook.

“We never give up until it’s over, so we’re going to keep going,” Nimmo said. “And if we come back from this, then it’s going to be a heck of a story.”