By RONALD BLUM AP Baseball Writer
NEW YORK — The Mets insist their greatest rebound of 2024 might be yet to come.
“If we come back from this, then it’s going to be a heck of a story. We’re going to be adding to that whole Grimace, OMG stuff,” outfielder Brandon Nimmo said after New York fell into a 3-1 National League Championship Series deficit with a 10-2 dud against the disciplined, relentless Dodgers on Thursday night.
The Mets dropped six games back of a wild card berth with a 22-33 start to their season and still made the playoffs.
They were two outs from elimination before Pete Alonso’s three-run home run saved them in the Wild Card Series at Milwaukee.
They rallied with five runs in the eighth inning of their Division Series opener at Philadelphia and got a go-ahead grand slam from Francisco Lindor in the sixth inning of Game 4 to finish the Phillies.
“It’s taught us a lot about our character and who we are in our identity as a team. We’re a super-resilient bunch, and we’ve had to pretty much answer the bell all year,” Alonso said. “The one word I can think of of the 2024 Mets other than Grimace is resiliency. That’s just who we are.”
Hopeful of reaching the World Series for the first time since 2015 and winning the title for the first time since 1986, New York has been outscored 30-9 by the Dodgers. Mets pitchers have walked 31 and their hitters have gone 4 for 29 with runners in scoring position, including 0 for 11 in the last two defeats.
Alonso is hitting .133 (2 for 15) with no RBIs. Nimmo, clearly playing hurt, is hitting .200 (3 for 15) with one RBI and Lindor is at .250 (4 for 16) with one RBI.
“If you have no belief, you shouldn’t be here,” Lindor said. “You go to believe. You got to fight for what we want.”
David Peterson will make his first start since Sept. 29, the next-to-last day of the Mets’ regular season, after six relief appearances in the playoffs.
“I feel ready to go as deep as necessary,” he said. “Looking forward to it and ready to give every pitch I have.”
Manager Carlos Mendoza did not give his team a rah-rah speech after the game, instead saving his thoughts for Friday.
“I’ll go in the same way I’ve been doing the whole year.” he said. “I’ll stop by the hitters meeting or the pitchers meeting, small settings. But I definitely will say something.”
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The Dodgers overcame a 3-1 NLCS deficit in 2020 and went on to win the World Series. The Mets realize the task is difficult but not impossible.
All the adversity they’ve overcome this year gives Mets players hope.
“We have history with it, so this isn’t new,” Nimmo said. “We we can do it. This team is very capable. It’s a very good team. But it’s just going to take all of us pulling together and it all working on the same cylinder and, honestly, some good things are going to have to come our way. We’re going to have to have some balls drop.”
Alonso, eligible for free agency after the World Series, said he isn’t thinking about the possibility of Friday potentially being his final game with the Mets.
“I’m so focused on just trying to win for these guys. This group is really special and it’s been an absolute blast this year,” he said. “We’ve accomplished a lot but this is going to be an incredible challenge and I’m really excited to go into battle tomorrow with with the guys in this clubhouse.”