Mets lose to Dodgers in 2024 NLCS

LOS ANGELES — A little less than five months ago, the Mets gathered in their clubhouse, locked the doors and resolved to make something of their season.

They preached accountability during that players-only meeting, of holding each other to a higher standard. And for the next five months, they did. They became something greater than just another team that fizzled out.

They became the team of Grimace and “OMG,” colorizing the summer. But these Mets also became known for so much more than gimmicks. These Mets were damn good baseball players, too, making it all the way to the National League Championship Series before falling to the Dodgers in Game 6 on Sunday, 10-5, to lose the series four games to two.

Sean Manaea, one of the players who carried the Mets into October, simply could not contain the Dodgers’ bats. Tommy Edman hit a two-run double and a two-run homer against Manaea, Will Smith added another two-run shot off Phil Maton, and the Mets found themselves trailing by five runs before the end of the third inning. They left a dozen men on base over the first seven. Long after dark fell at Dodger Stadium, the Mets continued to threaten, but they never really recovered. Eventually, they watched the Dodgers celebrate on the field.

It was a bitter ending, as most endings are, contradicting the notion that these Mets were perhaps a team of destiny. For five months, no force seemed capable of stopping them — not their longstanding rivals in the Braves, whom the Mets vanquished in Game 161 to clinch a playoff berth; nor the spunky Brewers, who had the Mets cornered until Pete Alonso hit a three-run homer in the ninth inning of Wild Card Series Game 3; nor the Phillies, who for much of the season seemed like the NL’s best team.

Instead, it was the Dodgers, a talented club whose aptitude became at least partially obscured by a rash of injuries. Mets owner Steve Cohen has spoken publicly of wanting to emulate the Dodgers, a club that routinely builds enough depth to endure even the unluckiest of circumstances. So it was this year, as the Dodgers, despite their issues, finished with Major League Baseball’s best record and have now advanced to the World Series against the Yankees.