New York Mets relief pitcher Seth Lugo. (Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports)
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After blowing their lead in the NL East, the Mets completed their collapse in 2022 by losing to the Padres in the NL Wild Card.
The New York Mets thought this could be the year. They won 101 games. They had the pitching staff. They had the stars on a roster worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Who cared if they fumbled the NL East title to the Braves? Playoff performance would be the only thing that mattered.
Spoiler alert: It didn’t go well for the Mets.
The Padres smoked them in the decisive Game 3 of the wild card series, winning 6-0 while holding New York to just one hit.
Mets trolled for losing to Padres in NL Wild Card: Best memes and tweets
Mets fans were in shock.
Well… This sucks & hurts a lot…
This team won 101 games & the season is now officially over after the Wild Card series. Very disappointing to say the least.
The #Mets simply played their worst baseball of the year at the wrong time & this was the result. Pain. pic.twitter.com/CyXKpfqbaR
— GENY Mets Report (@genymets) October 10, 2022
The Mets have 1 hit tonight as a fitting tribute to the amount of games they couldn’t win against the Braves last week to avoid this whole situation
— Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) October 10, 2022
The Padres bullied the Mets in this series. The bottom of the order raked. They played three error-free games. Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove absolutely shoved. Back end of the bullpen pitched well. They’re a tough out for any team with their SP. Dodgers will have their hands full.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 10, 2022
Padres blank the Mets, 6-0 to advance to the NLDS.
Mets are the 1st team to be shut out at home in a winner-take-all postseason game since the Mets in 2016 vs SF.
SD becomes the 1st team to win a winner-take-all-game via shutout since they did so in the 2020 Wild Card vs STL. pic.twitter.com/mSYvN2szqA
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 10, 2022
The Mets’ long nightmare continue but it was celebration time in many other cities around the country.
Now there’s a competition to find out who enjoyed the collapse more: Padres, Braves, Phillies or Yankees fans.
In the end, the Mets postseason run ends before the Yankees run begins.
— MLB Nerds (@MLBNerds) October 10, 2022
Now Mets fans can go back to what they do best – root against the Yankees. At least they have a shot doing that. #LGM 😩
— Coach Jimmy Randazzo (@JimmyRandazzo) October 10, 2022
How did this happen to New York? Letting the Braves sweep them in the penultimate series of the regular season dropped the Mets into the wild card round. But they still should have had the firepower to deal with the Padres.
It all started on Friday night with Max Scherzer melting down and giving up seven earned runs in a 7-1 loss. On the other side, Yu Darvish was absolutely dealing.
Jacob deGrom came to the rescue on Saturday to stave off elimination while the NY’s batters unloaded seven runs on San Diego.
They could have used those runs on Sunday as the Padres methodically built their 6-0 lead. New York couldn’t buy a hit against Joe Musgrove, who had the last laugh despite accusations that he was using an illegal substance during the game.
San Diego gets to take on the Dodgers in the NLDS. The Mets get to go home to face a long offseason.
