Entering play on the second-to-last day in May, the Mets were 22-33 and had just been swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in a tumultuous three days at Citi Field. Three months later, the team improved to 10 games over .500 for the first time this year and continued to push for a postseason berth.
“What a story, right?” first-year manager Carlos Mendoza said after Monday’s 4-1 win over the Boston Red Sox improved his team to 52-31 (.627) in the past 95 days.
“Proud of the guys, it’s been a lot of ups and downs, but we never quit, we never gave up, we always continued to believe,” Mendoza said. “We knew we had a good room, we knew we had good players and it was just a matter of time for us to not only prepare and get better at the things that we needed to get better at, but actually go out there and execute and get the job done.”
The result has the Mets just a half-game out of the third and final NL Wild Card spot behind the idle Atlanta Braves and now 3.0 games out of the second spot after the Diamondbacks fell to the Dodgers earlier on Monday.
And while the Mets are in a position to strike, the manager knows the big turnaround only means something if they continue to play good baseball.
“Here we are playing meaningful games in September, but we haven’t done anything,” Mendoza said. “We know where we’re at, and the mindset continues to be one game at a time, one series at a time and let the thing play out.”
The win on Monday, the fifth on the bounce in their first game back at Citi Field after a 10-game road trip, came after a stretch of play that saw New York take care of business against three playoff-bound teams — 6-4 against Baltimore, San Diego and Arizona, and sweeping aside the hapless White Sox in Chicago.
“I think it’s just preparation, it’s holding each other accountable, but keeping it fun,” the skipper added. “Today was a fun night, being back here in our house, in front of a really good crowd, so that’s what it’s all about.”
The fun came in the form of winning for the 13th time in their last 19 games and behind another solid seven-inning performance from right-hander Luis Severino and a two-double night from catcher Luis Torrens.
The catcher, who joined the Mets the first week of June after arriving in a trade, said the turnaround “speaks to how competitive this team is and how we go out there and work day-in and day-out.
“And I think, despite the slow start that we originally had, we continue to go out…