Mets preach belief on brink of NLCS heartbreak, elimination

Following a third blowout loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in four games, the New York Mets face a 3-1 National League Championship Series deficit and elimination from the playoffs. 

Nevertheless, Mets players preached optimism while speaking with reporters after Thursday's 10-2 defeat. 

"Take it one day at a time just like we’ve done it all year," star shortstop Francisco Lindor said, as Phillip Martinez of SNY shared. "If you have no belief, you shouldn’t be here. You have to fight for what you want. At the end of the day, it comes down to one day at a time and executing. We have an opportunity to win one game in the NLCS. We have to play the game better than they do."

One can't blame Lindor and other team leaders for thinking the 2024 edition of the "Miracle Mets" has at least one more bit of magic left in the tank. The Amazins were 0-5, 22-33 and 24-35 before they enjoyed an unexpected summer resurgence that was in danger of being spoiled before Lindor produced heroics on the final day of the regular season. New York then needed a dramatic ninth-inning home run to avoid being bounced from the wild-card round of the postseason tournament. 

"We’ve had our backs against the wall before," outfielder Brandon Nimmo said about this Mets squad. "Now we do it again and we’re going to do our best to add to the story and make some more magic. It’s definitely not easy, and nothing we’ve done to this point has been. That’s the fitting part of the story. We’re definitely not going to give up...Anything is possible until it’s over."

The Athletic's Will Sammon and others noted from Thursday night through Friday morning that the Mets "look like they have run out of gas." The cold weather in Queens isn't helping Lindor's attempt to play through a lingering back injury that won't disappear before he rests this offseason. Nimmo is visibly struggling while dealing with plantar fasciitis. Per Andrew Crane of the New York Post, the Mets went 4-for-29 with runners in scoring position through the first four games of the NLCS. 

Despite numerous stats and facts suggesting the Mets will fall short of making a World Series appearance this fall, left-hander David Peterson insisted on Thursday night he was "ready to go out there with the guys, compete our butts off and see where it gets us." Peterson will start Game 5 at Citi Field late Friday afternoon. 

"We’ve gone through a lot this year, and it’s made us who we are at this point," Peterson added. 

He and his Mets teammates will hope such experiences give them enough fuel to at least return the NLCS to Dodger Stadium for Game 6, scheduled for Sunday night.