Mets prepared for whatever NLCS challenge California presents them

With champagne flying around him that celebrated the present and teary eyes that hinted at the past, Brandon Nimmo was asked about the future.Where will Game 1 of the NLCS be?“We don’t care.It doesn’t matter,” Nimmo said after the Mets moved past the Phillies and now await the Dodgers or Padres.

“Whoever wins that series, it’s not going to be easy.And none of this is — this series wasn’t easy.

The Brewers series wasn’t easy.That’s what postseason’s all about.”Things broke right for the Mets on Wednesday, not just because they eliminated the Phillies in four games but because the Dodgers assured their own division series would reach a fifth.

In Game 4, Los Angeles used eight bullpen arms to shut down the Padres, setting up a winner-moves-on Game 5 on Friday that likely will pit Yu Darvish against a top Dodgers arm — either Yoshinobu Yamamoto or Jack Flaherty — which would mean the Mets would not see one of the winner’s stud starters until probably Game 3 of the NLCS.“We’re going to California,” Steve Cohen said, accurately.The Mets will be rooting for a lengthy and draining knockout game in which every best arm is used two days before the NLCS begins Sunday.Either way, a lefty bat like Jesse Winker — and potentially Jeff McNeil — should be ready for two teams that have used a combined zero lefty starting pitchers in October.Beyond that, for whom should the Mets be rooting? There is not an easy answer, but let’s break down the cases:Within the Mets hellscape that has been Atlanta, they conquered demons.

They went to Milwaukee and took a jab at David Stearns’ past before facing off against the hated Phillies and knocking off the division rival.Maybe this revenge tour can include some San Diego vengeance.Two years ago, it was Darvish who dominated the Mets in Game 1 of the wild-card series before a shiny-eared Joe Musgrove, who passed the foreign-substance inspection that Buck Showalter requested, delivered seven scoreles...