PHILADELPHIA — You’re kidding, right?
Is this baseball or a movie script?
In just the past week, they survived in Atlanta to qualify for the playoffs, hit a miraculous game-winning homer in Milwaukee to advance and on Saturday got completely shut down by one the game’s best starters, only to pull off a stunning comeback victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Yep, these New York Mets, these Miracle Mets, these Amazin' Mets – "OMG."
Limited to just one hit the first seven innings and looking lifeless, the Mets rallied to win 6-2, in Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Citizens Bank Park.
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You've never heard a frenzied crowd of 45,751 become so eerily quiet.
Just like that, the Mets have the Phillies worried about their glorious season going up in smoke.
This is a game the Phillies felt they had to win with Zack Wheeler on the mound. The former Met delivered one of the finest postseason performances in franchise history, giving up one hit in seven shutout innings.
Wheeler suffocated the Mets offense. He didn’t surrender his first hit in the fourth inning on Mark Vientos’ leadoff single. The Mets went 1-for-21 off Wheeler. He generated a career-high 30 swings and misses, the most by any Phillies pitcher in a postseason game dating back to 2008. It was the most by any pitcher in a postseason game behind only Gerrit Cole in 2019 when he was with the Houston Astros, according to MLB researcher Sarah Langs.
And then, the eighth inning happened.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson pulled Wheeler after 111 pitches, and called on All-Star reliever Jeff Hoffman to open the eighth.
It became a horror movie for the Phillies.
Francisco Alvarez opened with a single. Francisco Lindor walked. Mark Vientos tied the game with a single down the left-field line.
Thomson immediately yanked Hoffman, who was escorted by loud boos, and summoned another All-Star reliever in Matt Strahm.
Too late. The Mets had the momentum now.
Brandon Nimmo singled for another run.
Pete Alonso hit a sacrifice fly to center. Jose Iglesias singled, knocking Strahm out of the game.
In came right-hander Orion Kerkering to face pinch-hitter J.D. Martinez, who drove in another run with a single. And then it was another sacrifice fly by Starling Marte, making it 5-1.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
The Phillies, after losing the National League Championship Series lead to the Arizona Diamondbacks last year, dropping the final two games in Philadelphia, vowed to get that bitter taste out of their mouth.
It just got a whole lot worse.
They are facing a sizzling team that has momentum on their side and aren’t letting go.
The Mets gambled by starting Kodai Senga, who had pitched just 5 ⅓ innings this entire season. It took just three pitches to have them grimacing, watching leadoff hitter Kyle Schwarber send Senga’s 96-mph fastball into the upper deck. Mets right fielder Starling Marte didn’t even move as the ball sailed 425 feet away.
Who knew that would be the totality of the Phillies’ offense until the ninth inning?
While the Phillies’ bullpen gave up seven hits and six runs in two innings, the Mets’ bullpen pitched six shutout innings, giving up just three hits until the Phillies ultimately scored a consolation run in the ninth.
The Phillies, who had the week off after winning the NL East, learned that momentum beats rest and relaxation any day.
“This game is such a game of momentum and success inside of baseball, it's very contagious," Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto said before the game. “So when you start gaining confidence and you start feeling good about yourself and you see your teammates succeed, and then you come in in a big spot, that's extremely contagious and it just gives you confidence going forward.
“I think that's something you're seeing with the Mets right now. They're a really hot team, they have a lot of momentum."
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Brandon Nimmo followed by poking an RBI single the opposite way to put the Mets up 2-1 and then Pete Alonso's sac fly to center field brought Vientos around to score and give New York a 3-1 advantage.
J.D. Martinez added an RBI single and Starling Marte hit a sacrifice fly, turning a 1-0 hole into a 5-1 advantage before the Phillies finally got the third out.
Phillies ace Zack Wheeler is through seven scoreless innings and 111 pitches with the Phillies holding a 1-0 lead entering the bottom of the eighth. Wheeler, who made his MLB debut with the Mets in 2013, gave up just one hit with nine strikeouts and walks.
Kyle Schwarber's leadoff homer in the first inning remains the game's only scoring, with Zack Wheeler scoreless through five innings, giving up just one hit with seven strikeouts.
Mets reliever David Peterson having tossed three shutout frames in relief of Kodai Senga and worked around a man on second in the fourth and fifth innings, striking out Bryce Harper to end the latter frame.
Mark Vientos led off the top of the fourth with a single after the Mets were held hiltless through three innings and walk to Brandon Nimmo gave New York a scoring opportunity with no outs. But Zack Wheeler struck out Pete Alonso and got Jose Iglesias to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Making his first start since July, Mets right-hander Kodai Senga was replaced by lefty David Peterson after two innings of work with three strikeouts, giving up Kyle Schwarber’s homer in the first inning.
Peterson got the save in Game 3 of the wild-card series on Thursday, the first of his career. The 29-year-old went 10-4 with a 2.90 ERA in 21 regular season starts.
After Zack Wheeler set the Mets down in the top of inning Kyle Schwarber homered off Kodai Senga to lead off the bottom of the first, sending the crowd at Citizens Bank Park into a frenzy.
Schwarber's home run was his 21st in the postseason, breaking a tie with Derek Jeter for fourth on the all-time list.
First pitch for Game 1 is scheduled for 4:08 p.m. ET on Saturday at Citizens Bank Park.
All six USA TODAY Sports MLB writers and editors picked the Phillies to defeat the Mets in the NLDS, with three predicting that the Phillies will go on to win their first World Series since 2008.
Check out USA TODAY Sports' full MLB postseason predictions
PHILADELPHIA — One day Kodai Senga is pitching in Florida, wondering whether he’s wasting his time trying to get healthy for a game that may not exist.
The next, Pete Alonso is hitting a game-winning three-run homer in Milwaukee, keeping the New York Mets’ Cinderella season alive, and Senga is boarding a plane to join his teammates in Philadelphia for one the most improbable starts in Major League Baseball postseason history.
Senga, who has pitched just once all season, lasting a grand total of 5⅓ innings on July 26, is starting Saturday afternoon against the powerful Phillies in Game 1 of the National League Division Series.
“I'm ready for whatever," Senga said. “If they say 10 pitches, I'm all in for 10 pitches. If they say 200, I'm in for 200."
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza played it coy when asked, saying he also has no idea how long Senga will pitch.
"We'll see, we're going to let it play out,’ Mendoza said. “We have a plan. But we're going to go out there and watch him closely, and go from there."
– Bob Nightengale
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