QUEENS, NY — The ghosts of what has come before will always be woven into the fabric of baseball, but perhaps the New York Mets have put just a few spirits lingering from the parking lot where Shea Stadium once stood to rest.
Francisco Lindor’s sixth-inning grand slam lifted the Mets to an NLDS-clinching Game 4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday night at Citi Field, providing some much-needed champagne showers to a city that had been all too arid.
This was the first time since Game 5 of the 2000 NLCS — when those Mets defeated the St. Louis Cardinals to win the National League pennant behind Mike Hampton’s complete-game gem at Shea Stadium — that this franchise got to celebrate a playoff series victory on their own field.
Consider Citi Field officially christened, too, as this is the first time that it has happened in New York’s 15-year-old home.
“It’s special and that’s why every single fan should enjoy this moment,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Not only the people that were here at this stadium, but the way Francisco Lindor puts it, ‘Mets Nation,’ they should be proud of us, they should be proud of themselves. They’ve been through a lot. They need to enjoy it, they need to embrace it, and they need to believe.”
This will be the first time that the Mets are appearing in the NLCS since 2015, which just so happens to be the last time they won a playoff series and appeared in the World Series.
Veteran outfielder Brandon Nimmo, the longest-tenured Met who made his MLB debut the following year in 2016, just missed out on that NL pennant-winning team and had two Wild Card exits to show for his eight years in the big leagues.
“I was like, oh man, I’m right on the cusp and I’ll be a part of this and we’ll do this every year,” Nimmo said. “And then it’s 2024 now and I just won my first postseason series, the last series [the Wild Card Series against the Milwaukee Brewers], and now, we won the NLDS here. You just realize how hard it is and how many things have to go right. To be able the first to do it at Citi Field, it’s just a dream come true and all that emotion poured over.”
The lights will remain on at Citi Field for at least two more games. They will hit the road for the first two games of the NLCS — either in Los Angeles against the Dodgers or San Diego against the Padres — before playing three potential games in Queens with a trip to the World Series on the line.
Perhaps there will be more celebrations within the ballpark’s confines this year, but the team that continues to embody Mendoza’s “one-day-at-a-time” mantra, there was just a little extra satisfaction that came with getting this done at home, for once.
“It was unbelievable to be out there in front of our home fans and to hear them cheer after every out and be with us every single pitch,” southpaw David Peterson, who went 2.1 innings in relief during the Game 4 win, said. “We felt like we had all 45,000 behind us and on our side. To be able to clinch here and do what we did and see them emjoy this and cheer, it’s amazing.”
