Mets To NL East: This Race Ain’t Over Yet
One day before the All-Star break, July 7, I’m with my friends from this website at Citi Field watching the New York Mets take on the Philadelphia Phillies.
Everyone in the ballpark is booing the team as Zack Wheeler implodes and the Mets lose 8-3, all while the sad irony of Jay Bruce hitting two home runs at Citi Field for the Phillies kicks in. The team falls back to 10 games under .500 on this day at 40-50 as my friends and I try to just laugh through this embarrassment of a game.
A little over a month later, a new team arrives to Citi Field on August 9. This team comes into Friday night’s game having won 13 of their last 14 games and with a 19-6 record since the All-Star Break. Instead of 10 games under .500, this team comes into the day three games over.
If you were at the ballpark on Friday night, you wouldn’t believe that what I witnessed live on July 7 ever happened.
With a crowd of 39,602 half-crazed fans on hand, the stadium was in a way I’ve honestly never seen or felt before.
I’ve heard stories about how Shea Stadium used to shake to it’s core when the crowd roared with delight during signature moments. But it wasn’t until last night that I learned what that felt like, it was magical.
Every time the recently acquired Marcus Stroman got to two strikes on a batter with two outs in the inning, everyone in the stadium stood up, hoping and willing him to end the inning with a dramatic punch-out. It was incredible.
Stroman fed right off of the crowd’s energy, striking out a batter to end the inning in the five of the six frames he completed in front of his new hometown crowd, one that has already fallen in love with his passion and emotion, both of which were on full display for all to see.
In the fourth inning, the Mets fell behind 3-0 after Stroman allowed an RBI triple to All-Star third baseman Anthony Rendon and then a two-run homer to the up and coming Juan Soto.
However, the Mets showcased their never-die attitude in this game, though, scoring three runs in the bottom of that inning, bailing out Stroman after the red hot Pete Alonso hit a two-run homer and the equally hot J.D. Davis followed suit to tie the game at three.
These new New York Mets would not fade quietly into the night, and the message to the Washington Nationals was quite clear – this was our time and our moment and nobody was going to take it away from us.
In the seventh inning, Mickey Callaway would leave Stroman in to face one batter, but after walking Trea Turner, Stroman would be pulled in favor of Justin Wilson who would allow a two-run homer to Anthony Rendon after striking out Adam Eaton.
The ballpark quickly quieted down with obvious disappointment, with the few Nationals fans filling up the ballpark’s silence with cheers clearly with an urge to mess with Mets fans at their own ballpark. That only furthered in the top of the ninth inning when Turner scored from third on a Luis Avilan wild pitch, thereby extending the Nationals lead to 6-3.
One thing we have started to learn about this Mets team is that they have no quit, though, with Alonso having a big role in making sure this team never backs down from a fight no matter how high the mountain or how steep the drop.
As fans, we can sit there and give up on a team with ease, being deflated by results rather than by players’ confidence, which sometimes looks like a publicity stunt to sell tickets for the organization as a whole than an actual belief in themselves.
But this Mets team has proven on multiple occasions that they mean what they preach and nothing, not even a 6-3 deficit staring them into submission, was going to get in their heads.
To start the inning, J.D. Davis laced a double down the left-field line off of Sean Doolittle to put a runner on second base with nobody out. Wilson Ramos followed suit with a single to put runners on the corners with nobody out and Todd Frazier coming up.
After the single, the fans awoke again now cheering every time Doolittle threw a ball, realizing the left-hander was clearly rattled. In between pitches, all you could hear is people losing their voices cheering “let’s go, Mets” at the top of their lungs.
Whether it was a public display of hope or an understanding that something for the history books was about to happen, Mets fans were cheering as if they believed in this team in a way only done so during the best years of this team’s legacy.
On a 2-1 pitch, it happened, and Mets fans were given vindication for their unrelenting support of this team.
Frazier socked a pitch high in the air to deep left field and with fans staring in confusion as to whether or not the ball would stay fair, they cheered in a way I’ve never seen before as they were about to realize the Mets just tied the game.
As I stared at the ball rising up in the air, I instantly start comparing the line to the angle of the ball, realizing this ball had about a 50/50 shot of staying fair. With the magic that has been this run, though, I knew from the moment it was hit that they just tied the game.
Five seconds later, you could’ve heard the screams and cries of Mets fans from LaGuardia Airport, jumping up-and-down with absolute euphoria realizing the moment they were living in. We were all witnessing a moment in this team’s history that we’d be talking about for days and possibly years.
“That balls outta here, outta here. Todd Frazier ties the game,” was the call heard around New York on Friday night.
If you thought Mets fans couldn’t top that public outcry of emotion, you were sadly mistaken less than 15 minutes later and you would’ve been publicly ridiculed if you were a Mets fan daring to sit down with a fanbase believing we could will our team to victory.
Joe Panik kept the rally going with a single up the middle with still nobody out. Talk about a great time for your first hit with a new team, one he grew up less than an hour away from as a Yonkers native.
While he was erased on a Juan Lagares failed bunt attempt, the team still had a runner on first with one out. Jeff McNeil, in a rare no-hit performance at the plate, flew out to Eaton to record the second out.
After that happened, it appeared likely this game was going to extra innings, but that didn’t stop the Mets’ faithful from cheering ever more loudly, still not losing even a glimmer of hope that this team would let you leave the park feeling amazin’.
Amed Rosario would record his third hit of the night, a single to left field to put runners on first and second for Michael Conforto.
Sometimes in baseball, and even just life in general, you get handed a moment that appears only destined for you. It’s not something next person can take care of, which in this case would have been the significantly more vocal leader in Alonso. It’s a moment meant only for you.
In this case, you is referring to Conforto, the somewhat silent, “lead by example” type of leader that has very rarely been given credit as someone known for carrying the team. At every point in his career, he’s been viewed as a good player, that lacks the leadership and the personality to ever become the clubhouse leader and a face of the New York Mets.
On Friday night, he silenced his critics and possibly for good.
On a 2-2 pitch, what many would’ve deemed impossible, happened. Conforto hit a line drive to deep right field that Eaton gave up on very quickly, knowing that the former first-round pick had just recorded his first walk-off.
What happened at Citi Field after that was a scene to be cherished, and one I personally will never forget and haven’t stopped thinking about since 10:31 p.m., Friday.
Everyone in the ballpark erupted with joy and started hugging anyone in the ballpark they could find, many ripping off their shirts not knowingly mimicking Conforto in his post-game interview with SNY’s Steve Gelbs.
Many, including myself at times, view going to a sporting event at this stage as overvalued, with HD TVs making it pointless to take the time to drive 45 minutes or take the train to the ballpark when you can simply watch the game from the comfort of your own home.
But, in this particular instance, I can honestly say that anyone watching the game on TV did not experience the same we did in section 338 and all around the ballpark.
Obviously, as I sit here writing this article on August 10, I can’t tell you where this team is going to be come October, let alone the end of this week.
I can tell you this, though. After watching that game and processing my thoughts, I realized this was something I’ve never seen before, in person or on TV.
This wasn’t 2015 or 2016 and because I only started watching baseball at the start of the 2007 season, I can’t tell you if it had the feel of 2006.
The point is that what happened at Citi Field on August 9, 2019, was something I was able to envision telling my future kid(s) about 15 years from now when he/she hopefully is interested in baseball and more specifically, the Mets.
Maybe, this game in Mets history doesn’t hold the value it does one day after the event over the long haul. But, if the Mets pull off what many thought of less than two weeks ago as a pipe dream and somehow make the playoffs, that will go down as the night they put the league on notice and made even the stingiest nonbelievers believe in this team again.
There’s one thing that all Mets fans know: this team wins in the most beautiful and poetic ways and loses in the most heart-crushing and demoralizing ways imaginable.
I can promise you, what happened that night was something out of a storybook or a Hollywood movie.
Where that story ends will ultimately determine this moment’s ranking in Mets history, but we’re all told as kids that when you believe anything is possible, it truthfully is.
The Mets clearly seem to have that feeling, and there’s no reason we shouldn’t too.