Mets’ moxie on full display in ticket-punching thriller

ATLANTA — This was a different kind of doubleheader. And this definitely is a different kind of Mets team. 

It’s a nice bonus that the Mets’ clinching victory in their slow-starting season came against the hated Braves, but it could have been anyone. Unlike many of the previous 62 Mets teams, this one has the right mix, and the necessary moxie. 

Their 0-5 start is barely a memory. 

Their early-season standing 11 games below .500 isn’t worth a mention. 

The beginning of this fateful trip, with three defeats sandwiching a Hurricane, doesn’t mean squat now, either. 

The Mets engineered not one but two enormous rallies to win game one of a twin bill that was not only decisive for their season but weird as hell. They were facing their despised rival in a doubleheader a day after the regular season was supposed to end, but strangely, a split was going to be cause for celebration for both. Would a dual party of sworn enemies be allowed? 

In what turned out to be a Mets classic, they punched their ticket to the playoffs in style in a roller coaster of a game one that was somewhat reminiscent of their entire season. Very bad to start, thrilling at the end. 

The seasonal comeback was epic, the two comebacks in this postseason-clinching 8-7 victory maybe even better. The first rally from an early deficit was startling, a six-run shock that put the Braves on notice, the second one historic, with MVP candidate Francisco Lindor drilling a two-run, ninth-inning home run off Pierce Johnson that won the game, achieved their first goal and proved most everyone wrong (more on that later). 

“We made it, we made it. In May we were playing the worst baseball maybe in the league. And we came back from that. We battled through the whole season,” closer Edwin Diaz said. 

After the trip didn’t begin exactly as hoped, manager Carlos Mendoza advised them all to play with smiles on their faces. That was the talk around the team. Play loose. 

That’s easier said than done, of course, and it’s near to impossible to grin when you’re down 3-0 against new Mets tormentor Spencer Schwellenbach through seven innings. Or when frequent Mets killer Ozzie Albies delivers a three-run hit off Diaz to erase a six-run Mets comeback and hand the Braves the lead into the ninth. 

But say this for these Mets. There is no panic in these guys. 

To engineer two comebacks with the season on the line, especially in this place, tells us this is a different kind of Mets team. 

Few believed as the season spiraled early. But there was something about these fellows. Mets baseball president David Stearns saw it in spring training, telling The Post back then that it was a “playoff caliber” team. We didn’t get the message for a couple months, finally suggesting on May 18 he might be right. 

A lot had to go right to get where they wanted to go. Jose Iglesias became the surprise of the season. OMG did he ever. (He also won the Iglesias versus Iglesias battle, lining a game-tying single off star Braves closer Raisel in the first rally.) Mark Vientos also came out of Syracuse to become the team’s top slugger and show he could handle third base, too. 

Iglesias has to be one of the bargain signings of the season. But the team’s co-aces Sean Manaea and Luis Severino stepped up their games big-time, and David Peterson did, too. They were all great. Not enough is said about pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, one of the best. 

This time the offense ruled. After doing next to nothing through seven innings, the Mets lineup strung six hits in six at-bats in the eighth, punctuated by an absolute bomb of a home run by Brandon Nimmo that landed above the Chop House sign. Burgers and beer for all! 

But after Diaz was torched in the eighth (and exacerbated things by failing to cover first), they needed to find a second hero. Lindor was that guy, of course. He thought about how much his back hurt while rounding the bases, and no wonder; he’s carried this team at times. 

Diaz did finally rescue the Mets from a mess of his making, getting ex-Met Travis d’Arnaud to ground out to Lindor at shortstop to end it. Diaz slammed his mitt down (thankfully, he didn’t jump this time) and the muted party started — remember, oddly, there was a game to go. 

The win spared Severino from starting the nightcap, which was won 3-0 by the Braves, and he will instead start game one of the Wild Card series Tuesday at Milwaukee. This trip has gone Atlanta, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Milwaukee. And indeed, it’s going to continue to be a long and tough road. 

But these Mets are not like their forebears. They overcome. 

“It’s been an uphill fight,” Lindor said. “We put ourselves in a big hole. We kept climbing, we kept climbing. … We kept our shoulders above water. We never believed we were drowning. 

“We believed,” Lindor continued. “I’ve said this from day one. I believed we have the team to do [something] special.” 

The Mets did believe. But now they’ve made believers out of the rest of us, too.