NEW YORK — The 2024 New York Mets are following an eerily similar script.
They last played at home on Sept. 22, when they narrowly beat the Phillies 2-1 on Sunday Night Baseball to give themselves a chance to clinch a postseason berth in their next series versus the Atlanta Braves. But two of the three games in Atlanta were postponed due to Hurricane Helene. After a brief pause, they lost two out of three in Milwaukee against a Brewers team that had little to play for. The results of the final weekend of play led to the Mets flying back to Atlanta for a doubleheader a day before the Wild Card Series began to decide their fate. All they needed was one win and they were in.
The Mets won the first game, played the second game, then flew back north to Wisconsin for a best-of-three series agains the Brewers and a chance to play in their home ballpark in the National League Division Series. Down two in the ninth in Game 3, Pete Alonso hit a go-ahead home run to steal the series. Now everyone proclaims the Mets as the “Team of Destiny.”
Sixteen days later, the Mets are finally home and a familiar foe awaits them.
Does all of that sound familiar? Just two years ago, the Phillies followed a similar path into the postseason — and eventually rode an incredible wave of momentum all the way to a National League pennant.
The 2022 Phillies played their final home game of the regular season on Sept. 25. They were swept on the road in Chicago, took four of five in a rain soaked series in D.C. against the Nats and clinched a wild card berth with a single win against their future World Series opponents, the Houston Astros.
The Phillies, in the postseason for the first time since 2011, scored six runs in the top of the ninth against the Cardinals in St. Louis in Game 1 and pitched a 2-0 shutout in Game 2 at Busch Stadium to earn the series win — and a right to bring Red October back to Philadelphia more than a decade after the last postseason game in South Philly and 16 days after the last game played at Citizens Bank Park.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe only difference is that the Phillies had time to breathe with two meaningless games after the playoff clincher and two days off after winning the Wild Card Series. They ran out of magic in Game 4 of the World Series after getting no-hit by the lethal Astros pitching staff.
The question now becomes is when does the Mets’ magic run out and will it be during the Division Series?
The Mets have been a good story, but the Phillies are playing to end it.
When the Phillies came home in 2022, they were greeted by a crowd starving for postseason baseball. They got to experience what’s still considered one of the loudest moments in the ballpark’s rich 20 year history, the Rhys Hoskins bat spike home run against Spencer Strider to put the Phillies up big in Game 3 in the 2022 NLDS. The moment was a cathartic release of years of frustration, apathy and heartbreak.
For the Phillies, the prospect of coming back home to a crowd they had never experienced before energized the team.
“I know that I was very excited. And I know that the players were too, especially the guys that have been here for a few years,” Rob Thomson said. “Cause they, for the most part, got the one side of our fanbase, which is, you know, holding you accountable. And we were all excited because we had heard that, you know, if you get there, they’re going to come out. And they’re going to be raucous and passionate on the positive side.
“And it was, I mean, astounding to me how loud and how long they stood and cheered for all those games. I think these guys are going to see the same thing.”
The Phillies should fully expect to play in the most hostile postseason environment they have experienced over the last three years over the next two days. The crowd in Flushing will boo them loudly, but they also have the chance to turn that excitement into nervousness by getting ahead early.
It helps that they just played in New York a little over two weeks ago, where the mostly sold-out crowds were amped and ready to will their team to an unexpected postseason berth.
“You just got to kill the chaos and slow it down,” Thomson said.
Phillies Notes
- With Hurricane Milton set to make landfall in the St. Pete-Clearwater area on Wednesday, the Phillies’ stay-ready camp is moving to Philadelphia. The players on the taxi squad along with the staff accompanying them bussed from Clearwater to Jacksonville, missed their flight due to the heavy traffic and bussed to Atlanta to catch a flight to Philadelphia. They are expected to arrive in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Taxi squad players include catcher Rafael Marchan, infielder Buddy Kennedy and pitcher Spencer Turnbull. Many members of the Phillies organization reside in the area. “I think there’s a lot of people that are on our minds right now,” Thomson said.
- The Mets’ Game 3 starter, Sean Manaea, has actually been tougher against righties than lefties recently. Thomson said it was a tough decision to keep Bryson Stott out of the lineup after his big two-run triple in the eighth inning of Game 2, but he’ll likely come off the bench as a pinch hitter once Manaea exits the game.
- Phillies trade deadline acquisition Austin Hays was asked about the Phillies’ postseason environment: “Red October is real. It was awesome. … I’m looking forward to playing some more games there.”
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