Bizarre doubleheader gives New Era Mets a chance to exorcise old demons

Much of the craziness that has always been associated with the Mets is self-inflicted. This is what happens when teams are flawed on an annual basis and experience epic highs and lows because a cash-strapped owner never gave the front office and manager the resources and independence necessary to build a team that relies on continuity and little on drama .

But if the first year of the Steve Cohen/David Stearns/Carlos Mendoza Mets is the last glimpse of the Mets as we’ve always known them, then they’re going out in style.

Could this crazy season end any other way than with the Mets traveling to Atlanta tomorrow afternoon and walking the line between ecstasy and agony?

The combination of the Mets’ 5-0 win over the Brewers, the Diamondbacks’ 11-2 win over the Padres and the Braves’ 4-2 loss to the Royals on Sunday created a three-game tailback in the last two NL wild card spots and left the Mets and Braves having to play the doubleheader of games that were postponed by Hurricane Helene last week. (Once again, great work by everyone in Major League Baseball without even checking Weather.com)

With a win, the Mets (88-72) will complete their comeback from 11 games under .500 in early June and secure a playoff spot. With two wins, the Mets eliminate the Braves (88-72), their perennial tormentors, and secure fifth place, while securing the Diamondbacks’ sixth playoff spot (89-73). A split doubleheader sends the Mets and Braves to the playoffs and eliminates the Diamondbacks as Arizona loses the season series to both clubs.

“Before the year, no one expected us to be in this situation,” Mendoza said Sunday. “And here we have the chance to do something special.”

The Mets’ ability to secure an unlikely playoff spot in unusual fashion dates back to 1973, when the stunning duel for the NL East title ended on October 1 and the Mets clinched the division with a win against the Mets Cubs secured a quarterfinal makeup game played the day after everyone else’s regular season ended.

And if the Mets win a game on Monday, their reward will be a flight west to face either the Brewers or the Padres in a Wild Card series opener on Tuesday – similar to 1999, when the Mets clinched the Wild Card earned by defeating the Reds in a one-game playoff game on October 4 before flying to Arizona and defeating the Diamondbacks in Game 1 of an NLDS 24 hours later.

The downside, of course, is that the Mets are exiting with two losses, which will bring back memories and ghosts of 1998, 2007 and 2008, when another win last weekend would have given the Mets at least a play-in game, and 2022, when one Victory over the Braves on the final weekend would have locked up the NL East and a bye in the first round.

Failing against the Braves — for whom beating the Mets and crushing their hopes at the most opportune moment is an inherited joy, passed down from generation to generation like a treasured heirloom — is a particularly timeless Mets experience.

The remaining members of the 2022 team will not be haunted by the previous instances of Braves torment. But part of changing a culture and establishing a new heritage is the exorcism of ghosts, real and imagined.

A split Monday puts the Mets in the playoffs and moves them a little closer to unrecognizable form in a way that rewards their predecessors and those who endured the decade-long roller coaster ride.

“It’s hard to write something like that,” said David Peterson, grinning.

Maybe for someone else.