Mets moxie on full display in ticket-punching thriller

ATLANTA — This was a different kind of doubleheader.And this definitely is a different kind of Mets team. It’s a nice bonus that the Mets’ clinching victory in their slow-starting season came against the hated Braves, but it could have been anyone.

Unlike many of the previous 62 Mets teams, this one has the right mix, and the necessary moxie. Their 0-5 start is barely a memory. Their early-season standing 11 games below .500 isn’t worth a mention. The beginning of this fateful trip, with three defeats sandwiching a Hurricane, doesn’t mean squat now, either. The Mets engineered not one but two enormous rallies to win game one of a twin bill that was not only decisive for their season but weird as hell.They were facing their despised rival in a doubleheader a day after the regular season was supposed to end, but strangely, a split was going to be cause for celebration for both.

Would a dual party of sworn enemies be allowed? In what turned out to be a Mets classic, they punched their ticket to the playoffs in style in a roller coaster of a game one that was somewhat reminiscent of their entire season.Very bad to start, thrilling at the end. The seasonal comeback was epic, the two comebacks in this postseason-clinching 8-7 victory maybe even better.

The first rally from an early deficit was startling, a six-run shock that put the Braves on notice, the second one historic, with MVP candidate Francisco Lindor drilling a two-run, ninth-inning home run off Pierce Johnson that won the game, achieved their first goal and proved most everyone wrong (more on that later). “We made it, we made it.In May we were playing the worst baseball maybe in the league.

And we came back from that.We battled through the whole season,” closer Edwin Diaz said. After the trip didn’t begin exactly as hoped, manager Carlos Mendoza advised them all to play with smiles on their faces.

That was the talk around the team.Play loose. That’s easier said than done, of co...