Francisco Lindor hit a grand slam in the sixth inning, his last big swing in an extraordinary season full of similar feats, and the New York Mets, led by Venezuelan Carlos Mendoza, reached the National League Championship Series with a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.
Puerto Rican Edwin Diaz struck out Kyle Schwarber with two runners on board to seal the elimination of the Phillies, New York’s bitter rivals, in the fourth game of a maximum of five.
The Mets have won a playoff series at home for the first time in 24 years.
Immediately afterward, in a raucous locker room, the Mets’s first champagne celebration in Citi Field’s 16-season history took place.
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After three days off, New York will open the NL Championship Series, winning four of seven, either in San Diego against the Padres or in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. San Diego has a 2-1 lead heading into Game 4 on Wednesday night.
Elimination from the division series is bittersweet for the East Division champion Phillies, who won 95 games and finished six ahead of the Mets, who just snuck in with a wild card.
It was also a disappointing setback, after advancing to the 2022 World Series and then losing Games 6 and 7 of the 2023 NL Championship Series at home to Arizona.
After falling short again in October, Bryce Harper and the Phillies are still seeking the franchise’s third championship in history.
Few imagined that a team that at the end of May had a 24-33 record and was considered a colossal failure due to the pieces it had and the spending on its payroll, could now deal the final blow to a Phillies team full of stars that swept everything in their path during the regular season and started out as one of the favorites to win the World Series.
Once again they relied on Francisco Lindor, the MVP of this team, who with a wrist shot in the sixth inning turned Citi Fields in Queens into a madhouse.
The Puerto Rican shortstop disappeared the ball from reliever Jeff Hoffman with the bases loaded, igniting a Mets offense that was dull in the first half of the game due to the dominance of Venezuelan left-hander Rangers Suarez, who limited them to five hits in four and a third innings of work.
Lindor found JD Martinez, Starling Marte, and Tyrone Taylor on base on a single, a hit-by-pitch, and a walk, respectively, and found a 99.4 mph fastball from Hoffman that sailed between right-center field.
The relief pitcher took care of the rest, keeping his powerful rival scoreless and complementing the work of Colombian starter Jose Quintana, who allowed one run and two hits from Bryce Harper and company over five innings.
After this Mets victory, which decided a playoff series at home for the first time in 24 years, anything can happen and their next opponent, whether it be the Dodgers or the Padres who faced each other in the main game on Wednesday, will have to look at them in a different way and without that hint of surprise at the seemingly unexpected.
