Besides Clincher Vs. Braves, This Was Mets' Biggest Win Of The Year
We look back at a sneakily crucial victory for the Mets in 2024 that gave them a key tiebreaker over an NL rival.
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Pregame Pepper: Edwin Diaz’s Six-Out Save vs. Philly Helps Propel The Mets
Leading Off
The Second-Biggest Mets Win Of The 2024 Season
By Elizabeth Muratore
With the caveat that I’ve only been following baseball since I was 9 years old in 2006, I think the 2024 Mets season was one of the most fun Mets years of my lifetime. This year was a true roller coaster of emotions, from the 0-5 start (I was fortunate enough to attend their first win of the year in Game 2 of the doubleheader against the Tigers), to the Jorge Lopez glove throwing incident (I was somehow also at this game), to the London Series, to Grimace throwing out the first pitch (my sister was at this one!), to the OMG phenomenon, all the way to Lindor’s epic playoff berth-clinching home run on Monday.
Those are some of the main guideposts of this Mets season. The points that everyone will remember looking back at the outrageous highs and lows of what has been a truly memorable Mets campaign. But I’d like to zero in on what turned out to be, in retrospect, the second-biggest Mets win of the year, after their playoff clincher against the Braves of course.
This game was against the Arizona Diamondbacks, who ended up missing the postseason by a hair thanks to the Mets and Braves splitting the decisive twin bill. (I’m sure the D-backs will be out to get some revenge on the Mets next year, but they didn’t exactly help themselves by blowing an 8-0 lead against the Brewers last week.) The Mets and D-backs faced off in a three-game set in the last week of August having split a four-game series at Citi Field earlier in the year. With both teams vying for a National League Wild Card spot, whoever won this series would earn the all-important tiebreaker should both clubs finish tied for a playoff spot at the end of the year. This tiebreaker turned out to matter quite a lot.
In this crucial series finale, the two main characters for the Mets were Edwin Diaz and Jose Iglesias. The night before, Diaz had entered in the eighth inning with a one-run lead, walked two batters, and promptly allowed a go-ahead grand slam to Corbin Carroll to essentially hand the D-backs the win. It was, to put it mildly, not one of his better outings.
The next day, on Thursday, August 29, the Mets were locked in a 2-2 tie with Arizona entering the ninth. Home runs by Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor and Randal Grichuk had accounted for all the scoring up to that point. Whoever won this game was going to earn the tiebreaker, but there was still a lot to be settled entering the final frame of regulation.
After a one-out double by Jesse Winker (another fascinating character in this Mets season, given his history with Mets fans prior to his arrival), Iglesias stepped into the box against flamethrowing D-backs reliever Justin Martinez, who had emerged as one of Arizona’s most trusty relievers. And throw flames he did, coming right after Iglesias with 101 mph sinkers to start the at-bat.
But Candelita was not fazed. This is a guy who, after posting a .292 batting average over 118 games in 2022, was out of a job last year and could not find playing time with any Major League team. He didn’t even have a set role with the Mets at the start of this year, signing a Minor League contract with New York last offseason and beginning the 2024 campaign in Triple-A with his 12 years of MLB service time following him. But ever since his callup on May 31, Iglesias has been as big a spark for the Mets on offense and defense as anyone could have possibly asked for, even setting aside his pop stardom. (The remix for OMG comes out on October 11, in case anyone was wondering.) He’s made a habit of putting the bat on the ball his entire career and has been at his best with runners in scoring position, batting .375 with RISP this year.
So in this spot, with the Mets desperately trying to wash the stench of the prior night’s grand slam from their minds and eke out a crucial win, who better than Iglesias to have up. And he delivered, as he has so many times this year, poking a single up the middle just out of reach of D-backs shortstop Geraldo Perdomo to plate the go-ahead run.
As icing on the cake, Diaz got a chance for revenge and came in to pitch the bottom of the ninth. I admit, I was not the biggest fan of this move in the moment. Mets fan friends who I text about in-game action can check the receipts on that one. But to his utmost credit, Diaz dug deep and flipped the switch, retiring Arizona’s three, four and five hitters in a row, earning the save and a bit of redemption.
This win gave the Mets the tiebreaker over the D-backs. And as it turned out, they needed every ounce of that tiebreaker, as both teams finished the year with the exact same record of 89-73. But because of Iglesias and Diaz’s heroics on that August afternoon, the Mets were the ones who got to go dancing into October, while the D-backs were left with the nostalgic highlights of their run to the 2023 World Series to console them through the long winter. This may not have been the Mets’ most memorable win of 2024, but it was absolutely one of their most important.
Elizabeth Muratore is one of the editors of the Here’s the Pitch newsletter. She also works as a senior content producer for MLB and co-hosts a Mets podcast called Cohen’s Corner. Elizabeth is a lifelong Mets fan who thinks that Keith Hernandez should be in the Hall of Fame. You can follow her on Twitter @elizmuratore.