The Mets gave him a heartbreaking reminder of the magic of October

PHILADELPHIA – This was a reminder at a most inconvenient time: No team is cornering the Magic market in October. Not even a team that regularly has “Amazin'” and “Miracle” as its unofficial first name. Not even when this team, the Mets, have brought out the witchcraft so regularly and at so many unexpected times over the past week.

It turns out the Phillies still know a thing or two about the subject.

And the Phillies are still a great club and know how to put that magic to good use.

So after this 7-6 Phillies win, a game in which the Mets led 3-0 and 4-3 and then rallied from a 6-4 deficit with one out in the game, this series will be a flat-footed one Return to Queens in a tie ninth thanks to the racket of a fearless boy named Mark Vientos.

The Mets lost because, one of the few times in the series so far, they decided to challenge Bryce Harper, and Harper hit the hedges in center field. They lost because Edwin Diaz, who got out of Jose Butto's jam in the seventh inning, couldn't get out of his own jam in the eighth inning.

And they lost because Philly's Nick Castellanos – who was booed mercilessly by his own fans early in the game – blasted a hanging slider from inferior pitcher Tylor Megill into left field, blowing up Citizens Bank Park and reviving the Phillies as it was seemed as if they were slowly approaching darkness.

Instead, it was her finest hour.

“An instant classic,” Brandon Nimmo called it

“It feels terrible,” Megill said. “We lost. It’s not the way you want it to be.”

Now we have a real event planned for Tuesday afternoon at Citi Field. We have Game 3, which was supposed to be a three-hour study on hearing loss. We'd say the Phillies have the momentum, but the way this series has gone through the first 18 innings, neither team probably wants that. So far, both teams are most dangerous when it looks like the other team's bench is flooded with adrenaline.

“We came back in the ninth inning after losing the lead,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. And then the Phillies came back after Vientos pulled the ball out of the dugout in the bottom of the ninth. If you have a dog on this hunt, you had stomach problems on either Saturday or Sunday.

And if the Mets are your dog, Tuesday will be something different. Tuesday can't come soon enough. Citi Field got some nice dress rehearsals this week, with the faithful flocking to 41 Seaver Way for watch parties, the highlights of which have provided hours of content for X, TikTok and Instagram.

Now finally the real thing comes.

“I can’t wait to play in front of our fan base,” Mendoza said. “It's been a while.”

Would it have made a difference if the Mets had won those games in Philadelphia? Perhaps. And for such a long Sunday, that seemed like a real possibility. Vientos hit his first home run, a two-run blast in the third. Pete Alonso added a solo shot in the sixth. It was 3-0 and the panic in the bank was real.

Then, after 5 ²/₃ brilliant innings, Luis Severino allowed a scratch hit to Trea Turner and then back-to-back moonshots to Harper and Castellanos. It was like hitting an entire city in the chest with paddles. Nimmo hit one to give the Mets the lead. Then Diaz couldn't crawl out of the mire of a stadium in which he had experienced so many brutal moments.

Then Vientos again.

And again Castellanos.

This will never see the light of day on “Mets Classics” on SNY because it violates the cardinal rule of these episodes: the wrong team won the game. But it was still a damn good game. If the Mets win this series, you can admit it. Until then, it could rob you of a few hours of sleep between now and Tuesday afternoon, now and Game 3.

“We have non-stop fight and confidence,” Megill said. “We get hit, we hit back, the guys keep having one good shot after another.”

Of course, if you had asked any of the Phillies across the court, they would have said the same thing, because the same thing applies. Remember, the Phillies considered themselves the home office of October magic until those Mets started staking a claim. But no team has all the magic. No team is conquering this market.

You just hope you have enough to get three wins, enough to get to California to play either the Padres or the Dodgers in a week.

“That just didn’t happen today,” Mendoza said.

Tuesday is a different day. It promises to be a good day, maybe even a great day.

“It feels like we’ve been on the road for the last six months,” Severino said.

They are coming home now and have home advantage at the moment. Magic is a helpful resource. Two home games could help even more.