Facing the abyss again, these Mets showed how the improbable has become probable

The Mets had been held scoreless in 15 straight innings. They entered the ninth inning of last night’s deciding NL Wild Card game without a runner reaching third base, without any runner but Francisco Lindor reaching base.

The Mets had nothing left — but another improbable, all-time moment in franchise history.

Just three days after Lindor’s ninth-inning home run in Atlanta clinched the Mets’ unlikely postseason berth, Pete Alonso — in what could have been his final at-bat with the Mets — topped his teammate by delivering a three-run blast with the team just two outs from elimination, sending the Mets to Philadelphia for the NLDS, following their 4-2 win in Game 3 in Milwaukee.

One of the most surprising and instantly iconic moments in team history should have been no shock at this point. The Mets are still standing, more than a year after Max Scherzer informed us that the front office considered 2024 a transition year. Confirmation of that appeared to come in a quiet offseason. Then, the Mets dropped their first five games of the season and fell 11 games under .500 on June 2, setting themselves up as sellers before the trade deadline.