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Those of you who grew up playing video games in the late 1990s and early 2000s can enjoy a good deal of nostalgia this weekend.

“Backyard Baseball ‘97” has been re-released by Backyard Sports on Steam, Mega Cat Studios and Playground Productions announced Thursday. The re-release of “Backyard Baseball ’97” coincided with the 27th anniversary of when the game was first released, which was the first video game of the Backyard Sports series.

Five other games from the Backyard Sports series will soon be re-released, Mega Cat Studios and Playground Productions also shared. “Backyard Soccer ‘98,” “Backyard Football ’99,” “Backyard Basketball ‘01” and “Backyard Hockey ’02” will eventually be re-released and can be wish-listed now through Steam.

Mega Cat Studios and Playground Productions shared in August that they planned to revive the Backyard Sports series in some form. While they shared a trailer for the revival, details were scarce at the time.

“We’re incredibly excited to reintroduce Backyard Sports to a new generation of players,” Chris Waters, chief product officer at Playground Productions, told Sports Illustrated in a statement at the time. “We’re taking great care to preserve the look and feel that made the original games so special while updating them with modern features and gameplay that today’s audience expects. I can’t wait for fans to see what we’re building on the playground.”

In addition to relaunching the video game line, there are plans to bring the Backyard Sports brand to film, television and expanded merchandise, Variety reported in August. 

The Backyard Sports games quickly became popular in the late 1990s. Pablo Sanchez, a character in the series since Backyard Baseball ’97, has been widely regarded as one of the best video game athletes of all time due to his strengths as a hitter and runner in the baseball editions of the game.

As the video game series grew more popular, Backyard Sports reached licensing agreements with MLB, the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, the WNBA and MLS. The licensing agreements allowed real-life athletes to appear in the game. MLB stars, such as Ken Griffey Jr. and Derek Jeter, didn’t appear in the series until “Backyard Baseball ‘01,” so they aren’t featured in the re-release of “Backyard Baseball ’97.”

NFL players appeared in “Backyard Football ’99” while NBA players were in “Backyard Basketball ‘01.” There were also NHL stars in “Backyard Hockey ’02.”

The re-release of “Backyard Baseball ‘97,” features several of the former characters in the original edition of the game, including Sanchez and announcers Sunny Day and Vinnie The Gooch, according to Sports Illustrated. There’s also a season mode in the game.

As of Thursday, the re-launch of “Backyard Baseball ‘97” is only available for purchase through Steam, a video game digital distribution service that’s primarily by Microsoft Windows users, for $9.99. However, the Backyard Sports brand teased on social media that it will soon be compatible with Mac products. 

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After 40 years of owning the Minnesota Twins, the Pohlad family said Thursday it plans to sell the team.

The Twins have had great triumphs on the family’s watch. With Kirby Puckett leading the way, Minnesota won World Series titles in 1987 and 1991. Since the turn of the century, the Twins have won the American League Central Division title nine times and claimed a wild card spot once.

There also have been frustrations — the Twins finally broke an 18-game postseason losing streak last year.

“For the past 40 seasons, the Minnesota Twins have been part of our family’s heart and soul,” Twins executive chair Joe Pohlad, a third-generation owner, said in a statement. “This team is woven into the fabric of our lives, and the Twins community has become an extension of our family. The staff, the players, and most importantly, you, the fans — everyone who makes up this unbelievable organization — is part of that. We’ve never taken lightly the privilege of being stewards of this franchise.

“However, after months of thoughtful consideration, our family reached a decision this summer to explore selling the Twins. As we enter the next phase of this process, the time is right to make this decision public.”

The Twins have been competitive in recent years — they went 87-75 and made the playoffs in 2023 and won a playoff series for the first time since 2002. The manager, Rocco Baldelli, has led the team to three division titles in six years.

But being close to greater success has been part of the frustration from a fanbase that has wanted the franchise to take another step. After the successful 2023 season, the team faced a loss in local television revenue due to the bankruptcy of cable network Bally Sports. Pohlad then ordered a spending cut that amounted to a nearly $30 million salary decrease — something that rankled fans who have long been frustrated with the family for its conservative approach to player spending. The Twins went 82-80 this season, missing the playoffs after a late-season collapse.

The Minnesota Twins started play in the American League in 1961 after the Washington Senators relocated to the Minneapolis area.

Pohlad said he recognizes the team’s importance to the area, and that will be a consideration in the process.

“After four decades of commitment, passion, and countless memories, we are looking toward the future with care and intention — for our family, the Twins organization, and this community we love so much,” he said.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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Francisco Lindor’s go-ahead grand slam in Game 4 of the National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies was one of the more iconic moments for the New York Mets in recent memory — and it generated a great deal of raw emotion.

In fact, following the home run, Mets right-hander Kodai Senga was seen in the dugout with an absolutely shocked expression.

The home run gave New York the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning, and the Mets held on to get a series-clinching, 4-1 victory.

Senga, who was an All-Star in his first MLB season in 2023, made just one start in the 2024 regular season after suffering a shoulder injury in spring training and then a calf injury in July. That said, Senga started Game 1 of the NLDS for the Mets, pitching two innings.

Lindor finished the NLDS with one home run, five RBIs and a .278/.350/.556 slash line. Last week, Lindor hit a go-ahead home run in the top of the ninth inning in the first game of a double-header against the Atlanta Braves, which helped the Mets punch their ticket to the NL wild-card round, where they beat the Milwaukee Brewers in three games.

The Mets will play the winner of the NLDS matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres in the NL Championship Series. Game 1 of the series is on Sunday night, with the Mets being the road team in either matchup.

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SAN DIEGO — On Tuesday night, one of Major League Baseball’s best home-field advantages was fulfilling its reputation. Every Game 3 miscue from the Dodgers seemed to invite another. It felt like Petco Park was suffocating the opponent. Twenty-four hours later, another record crowd filled the seats, expecting to continue the celebration. One win away from slaying the dragon to the north again in the National League Division Series, Padres fans were ready to party like it was 2022. 

Instead, they were never given a reason. 

Mookie Betts helped make sure of it, emerging from his postseason doldrums and finding his self-belief again in an 8-0 win that saved the Dodgers’ season. 

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“My teammates did an amazing job trying to put confidence, instill confidence in me,” Betts said. “I had to turn off all social media because that was all negative, and I had to get some positive vibes in me.”

Lately, they had been hard to come by.

Betts entered this week hitless in his past 22 postseason at-bats and 2-for-31 dating back to the start of the 2022 NLDS. In that time, the Dodgers were 2-7 in playoff games. 

In the midst of the drought, Betts’ teammates tried to keep his spirits up. To remind the eight-time All-Star of who he is. 

“Mook’s our guy,” Max Muncy said. “He’s one of our leaders. He’s still one of the best players in baseball. I know he gets a little bit overshadowed because we’ve got Shohei Ohtani, but [Betts] is still getting paid $400 million, too. He is one of the best players in baseball, and he’s been one of the best players in the postseason. I know his last two years haven’t shown that, but I mean, c’mon, look at what he’s done in the past. He can still do it.” 

In 2018, Betts helped guide the Red Sox to a World Series championship in an MVP season. Two years later, in his first week with the Dodgers, on the first day of full-squad spring training workouts, Betts challenged his new teammates to be more accountable for their effort and to treat every practice rep like it was the World Series. The speech set the tone for another championship season.  

During the Dodgers’ 2020 short-season title run, Betts had an .871 playoff OPS in the playoffs and tallied four extra-base hits in the World Series, including a home run in the deciding Game 6. The following year, he hit .458 in the NLDS against the Giants and finished the series with a four-hit performance in a do-or-die Game 5 that helped propel the Dodgers forward. Their road ended against the Braves in the National League Championship Series, where Betts’ struggles began. 

By the time he stepped to the plate in San Diego this week, Betts was in the midst of a 3-for-44 playoff slump. Nobody had to remind him. 

“I know it’s there,” Betts said. 

Manager Dave Roberts could tell it was starting to seep into Betts’ psyche at the plate. 

“It’s up to all of us to make sure that he’s in a good headspace to go out there and compete and not get too worried about each particular at-bat,” Roberts said. 

Muncy, and others, have tried to play their part. 

“When they walk Sho to pitch to him, when he gets a big hit, I tell him, I say, ‘Hey, you get paid $400 [million] too, bro,'” Muncy said. “‘You’re getting paid $400 [million] too. You’re still one of the best players.’ Sometimes, you’ve just got to get reminded of it.” 

For a few seconds Sunday at Dodger Stadium, Betts appeared to turn a corner. 

In the first inning of Game 2, he lifted a deep drive that carried 354 feet to left field. It would have been a home run in 19 ballparks. Fooled by Jurickson Profar’s histrionics, it was not until Betts was halfway between second and third base that he realized Profar had secured the catch. Betts would go hitless the rest of the night and take his skid with him to San Diego.

Determined to work his way out of the slump, Betts celebrated his 32nd birthday on Monday in a batting cage, swinging hundreds and hundreds of times in San Diego on the Dodgers’ workout day before Game 3. 

“You guys just see that,” Muncy said. “We’ve seen the last month. That’s been the work and the preparation he’s had every single day.”

He hit inside. He hit outside. Rather than take time away from the grind to try to clear his head, Betts thought the only way out was through. If he turned his brain off, Betts figured, his struggles would only get worse. 

“I’ve seen him take swings where it looks great to me, and for whatever reason he just says it doesn’t feel the way it should,” Tommy Edman said. “But, he’s just got a high standard for what his swing should feel like. He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve played with.”

So, Betts continued tinkering, trying to find the right feel. 

Swing after swing after swing. 

“I don’t care about overdoing it,” Betts said. “I’d rather overdo it than not give effort. Pretty much as soon as I get to the park, I’m in the cage, and I don’t leave until I go back on the field. And I come back inside, and I hit some more. That’s what I’ve been doing.”

On Tuesday, the work finally yielded production. 

Given what had preceded Game 3, you couldn’t blame him for being incredulous when he finally broke out. 

In the first inning of the first game after the best catch of Profar’s life, Betts provided another opportunity for a robbery. It looked like a replica of his swing at Dodger Stadium. Again, Profar reached into the stands, extending his arm over the short wall at Petco Park. Betts was so sure the Padres left fielder had the ball and was trolling again that he began jogging back toward his dugout after rounding first. He was near the pitcher’s mound before he realized Profar didn’t make the play. Betts darted back to the baseline and continued his home run trot. 

The game would soon unravel on the Dodgers. A Teoscar Hernández grand slam could not prevent them from being pushed to the brink. 

But there was an important silver lining. 

“I think I just needed to see one fall, man,” Betts said. 

He finished with a two-hit night, then another on Wednesday. 

“It’s kind of like a hit here, a hit there, they build that momentum and keep building that momentum over time,” Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates said. “He slowly builds it, and it stays for a while.” 

In Game 4, Betts went deep in his first at-bat of the game for the second straight day. This time, there was no hesitating on his trot around the bases. Betts got all of a 403-foot blast to left-center. 

“If he’s going,” Hernández said, “everybody’s going to follow.”

That’s what took place in Wednesday’s eight-run trouncing. The next inning, Ohtani knocked in a run with an RBI single. Betts followed with another RBI knock. The stars atop the lineup started the day a combined 3-for-4 with three RBI, and Betts had finally found something of a groove. 

“He knows who he is,” said reliever Daniel Hudson, who threw a scoreless inning in the Dodgers’ Game 4 shutout. “But this is a really, really hard game, and hitting’s even harder than my side of it. I think sometimes he can be a little bit tough on himself. So, to see him come out these last two games and get some big hits for us, hopefully a little bit of a weight off his shoulders, and he can go out there and just be Mookie.”

Suddenly, hits came in bunches: a Muncy double, a Will Smith two-run homer. By the end of the third inning, the Dodgers led 5-0 and already had more hits than either of the previous two games. 

In the process, they removed one of San Diego’s greatest assets. 

The “beat L.A.” chants that had just burst with vigor, boosting the Padres through a nail-biting Game 3 victory, suddenly sounded more like a plea. The 2024 Dodgers, with their season on the line, would not fold lifelessly the way they had in their first-round exits the past two years. 

On Wednesday, they did not have Miguel Rojas, whose torn adductor forced him out of Game 3 early. They did not have Freddie Freeman, who got a day off for his sprained ankle. (The Dodgers made that call during a team breakfast the morning of Game 4.) They did not have a starting pitcher, either, going to a bullpen game while facing elimination. 

But they did have Betts, the six-time Silver Slugger who started to resemble the player who was on an MVP track this season before a broken hand sidelined him for two months. 

“I think we all knew Mookie was going to be Mookie,” Freeman said. 

Just as important, with the series moving to a winner-take-all matchup Friday in Los Angeles, Betts might have reminded himself, too.

“I think he just needed a couple hits to get it out of his head,” Muncy said. “You’ve seen it the last two nights, he’s been Mookie Betts.”

 Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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NEW YORK — Katia Lindor closed her eyes and started praying. 

When she opened them, the ball off Francisco Lindor’s bat was still in the air — and heading toward the fence in right-center field. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon,” she told herself as it continued to sail. Finally, the ball landed beyond the fence and into the visitor’s bullpen. Pandemonium ensued around her, a blur of fans in orange and blue jumping up and down and making the ground shake. 

She started crying. 

“It’s almost like a weight is lifted off our shoulders where it’s like, people finally appreciate him, and they see his value,” Lindor’s wife said. “I think they’re starting to see it beyond the field, too, and definitely on the field. I’m so proud of him. I’m in awe of him every day. His hard work is just incessant. He does not take his responsibility and his role lightly.”

Lindor’s sixth-inning grand slam was perhaps the biggest home run in Citi Field’s brief history, and perhaps the best swing of his life. In one fell swoop Wednesday, the hit put the Mets on the board, gave them the lead and accounted for all of their offense in a 4-1 victory that eliminated the rival Phillies from the postseason and sent New York to the National League Championship Series for the first time since 2015. 

The series-cliching grand slam — a true fairytale moment for Queens — also served as a metaphor for all that Lindor means to this Mets organization. 

“I want to win it all. I want to win it all,” Lindor said. “And ours will be a team that will forever be remembered. This will be a team that comes every 10 years and eats for free everywhere they go. And I want to do that. I want to do that. But the job is not done.”

Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns, eyes red from champagne and hysteria, said anyone who’s watched Lindor step up in clutch situations this year had a feeling he would be the one to deliver the big hit in a tight Game 4 of the NLDS. 

“I don’t know that there’s another player in baseball you want at the plate right now in that situation,” Stearns said.

Just nine days ago, which can feel like nine weeks in October, Lindor swatted a go-ahead, eighth-inning two-run homer against the Braves to seal the Mets’ playoff spot. Over the next week, Lindor continually reached base to set up key home runs for his teammates, including Pete Alonso’s ninth-inning three-run blast in a winner-takes-all wild-card game against the Brewers and Mark Vientos‘ ninth-inning two-run shot that tied Game 2 of the NLDS versus Philadelphia. It’s hard to believe Lindor’s dramatic grand slam on a 100 mph offering from Carlos Estévez was his first home run of this postseason given how much he’s contributed to every win. 

​​”The whole time, I was like, this is who we are,” manager Carlos Mendoza said he was thinking as Citi Field erupted. “This is part of the story. This is part of the book, the movie, whatever you want to call it. When he connected to that ball, I just wanted [Lindor] to enjoy it.”

“I don’t remember putting my hands up. But my hands were just, like, in the air,” Alonso said of his reaction to Lindor’s grand slam. “Just an unbelievable swing. I mean, that was a swing of a lifetime. That’s what you practice in the backyard, as a kid growing up.”

It’s not hyperbole to say that the shortstop has led every step of the way — from an 0-5 start to the season to being 11 games under .500 in late May through being snubbed for the All-Star Game — in the Mets’ improbable odyssey to the NLCS. Lindor’s attention to detail and ability to stay level-headed in stressful situations are only a couple of reasons why his teammates describe him as an assassin, consistent, their MVP, their leader, and their captain. Stearns said the 30-year-old Lindor has structured his entire life to do what he did Wednesday night at Citi Field.

His latest act of leadership arrived not in the sixth inning but the ninth, after Edwin Díaz walked his first two batters on 10 pitches. The embattled Mets closer was walking the tightrope of preserving a three-run lead when pitching coach Jeremy Hefner called for a mound visit. 

Díaz tried to pump himself up by repeating, “Let’s go, let’s go.” That’s when Lindor got in Díaz’s ear: “Don’t say, ‘let’s go,'” Lindor told him. “Just do it.”

In an instant, Díaz, who’d been struggling to locate, locked in and threw his 99 mph fastballs right where he wanted them — blowing them by pinch-hitter Kody Clemens for a strikeout. After inducing a flyout, Díaz quickly got ahead of postseason titan Kyle Schwarber before putting him away with a 101 mph heater to shut the door on the NL East champions’ season. 

As the Mets’ dugout swarmed the field, something magnificent ensued: Rather than rush to the mound, the entire Mets roster sprinted to where Lindor was standing in the infield dirt and enveloped him with a hug. Then, and only then, did his emotionless facade fade away. He smiled, he cried, he laughed, and he looked around at the Citi Field crowd and took it all in. 

“We’re blessed to do this in front of the fans,” a red-eyed Lindor told FOX’s Tom Verducci. “We just keep climbing. My at-bat doesn’t come up if it wasn’t for the guys in front of me. Today I was the one who drove in runs, but it could have been anybody.”

But it was most likely to be Lindor, and it allowed a long-suffering fan base to witness a series win in Flushing for the first time since 2000.

“Great ball players do great things,” Mets owner Steve Cohen said of Lindor’s slam. “It was bases loaded. It was a big moment, so I was standing up. You knew something was going to happen.”

As has been his style this fall, Lindor was straight-faced and locked in as he rounded the bases following his homer. Somehow, he was the only one keeping it together while the rest of Queens lost their minds. Outfielder Jesse Winker described Lindor as a “stone-cold killer.” Lindor’s low-key reactions are a departure from the explosive, celebratory displays he used to show in his previous postseasons with Cleveland. A few teammates asked Lindor about it, and he told them that he wouldn’t celebrate until the job was done, until the Mets got the final out of the World Series. 

Just 24 hours earlier, Lindor said this was the calmest he’s ever felt in his six career trips to the playoffs. 

“I don’t know, for some reason the reactions from me this year haven’t been as jumpy or as excited,” he said Tuesday. “I don’t know if it has to do with being tired or if it has to do with just trying to stay in the moment, that I don’t have that crazy reaction I usually have. It’s just, I’m in a good place right now. I’m living the life I always wanted.”

So are the Mets.

As the team celebrated on the field in dark black T-shirts soaked in champagne, one fan held up a sign that said, “Believe in miracles.” Another read “DESTINY” in orange lettering. That’s what the 2024 Mets are playing like: a team of destiny that is resilient above all else. When they rolled into spring training, the Mets had a 2.2% chance of winning the NLCS, according to FanGraphs’ playoff odds. That same projection system gave them a 1% chance of winning the World Series. Now, the Mets are just eight victories away. 

Stearns had a few choice words for those who’ve criticized this Mets’ core — led by Lindor, Alonso and Brandon Nimmo — and questioned whether they could win big games.

“I think they’ve shown that’s bull****,” he said. “This core has been winning games since June 1. So, we can put that to bed right now.”

And yet, Mendoza asserted afterward that the Mets, who in fact have the best record in baseball since June 1, haven’t done anything yet. Lindor said he’s not even close to satisfied. The Mets are enjoying the moment, no doubt. But they’re still hungry, and that should be a terrifying sign for their next opponent. The Mets enter the NLCS as perhaps the most consistent team in baseball. 

“This is what I wanted. I came here to play winning baseball and get opportunities to try to win a World Series,” Lindor said, his play having already carried these Mets further than anyone outside of their clubhouse imagined. “We got to keep on climbing.” 

Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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NEW YORK — Katia Lindor closed her eyes and started praying. 

When she opened them, the ball off Francisco Lindor’s bat was still in the air — and heading toward the fence in right-center field. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon,” she told herself as it continued to sail. Finally, the ball landed beyond the fence and into the visitor’s bullpen. Pandemonium ensued around her, a blur of fans in orange and blue jumping up and down and making the ground shake. 

She started crying. 

“It’s almost like a weight is lifted off our shoulders where it’s like, people finally appreciate him, and they see his value,” Lindor’s wife said. “I think they’re starting to see it beyond the field, too, and definitely on the field. I’m so proud of him. I’m in awe of him every day. His hard work is just incessant. He does not take his responsibility and his role lightly.”

Lindor’s sixth-inning grand slam was perhaps the biggest home run in Citi Field’s brief history, and perhaps the best swing of his life. In one fell swoop Wednesday, the hit put the Mets on the board, gave them the lead and accounted for all of their offense in a 4-1 victory that eliminated the rival Phillies from the postseason and sent New York to the National League Championship Series for the first time since 2015. 

The series-cliching grand slam — a true fairytale moment for Queens — also served as a metaphor for all that Lindor means to this Mets organization. 

“I want to win it all. I want to win it all,” Lindor said. “And ours will be a team that will forever be remembered. This will be a team that comes every 10 years and eats for free everywhere they go. And I want to do that. I want to do that. But the job is not done.”

Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns, eyes red from champagne and hysteria, said anyone who’s watched Lindor step up in clutch situations this year had a feeling he would be the one to deliver the big hit in a tight Game 4 of the NLDS. 

“I don’t know that there’s another player in baseball you want at the plate right now in that situation,” Stearns said.

Just nine days ago, which can feel like nine weeks in October, Lindor swatted a go-ahead, eighth-inning two-run homer against the Braves to seal the Mets’ playoff spot. Over the next week, Lindor continually reached base to set up key home runs for his teammates, including Pete Alonso’s ninth-inning three-run blast in a winner-takes-all wild-card game against the Brewers and Mark Vientos‘ ninth-inning two-run shot that tied Game 2 of the NLDS versus Philadelphia. It’s hard to believe Lindor’s dramatic grand slam on a 100 mph offering from Carlos Estévez was his first home run of this postseason given how much he’s contributed to every win. 

​​”The whole time, I was like, this is who we are,” manager Carlos Mendoza said he was thinking as Citi Field erupted. “This is part of the story. This is part of the book, the movie, whatever you want to call it. When he connected to that ball, I just wanted [Lindor] to enjoy it.”

“I don’t remember putting my hands up. But my hands were just, like, in the air,” Alonso said of his reaction to Lindor’s grand slam. “Just an unbelievable swing. I mean, that was a swing of a lifetime. That’s what you practice in the backyard, as a kid growing up.”

It’s not hyperbole to say that the shortstop has led every step of the way — from an 0-5 start to the season to being 11 games under .500 in late May through being snubbed for the All-Star Game — in the Mets’ improbable odyssey to the NLCS. Lindor’s attention to detail and ability to stay level-headed in stressful situations are only a couple of reasons why his teammates describe him as an assassin, consistent, their MVP, their leader, and their captain. Stearns said the 30-year-old Lindor has structured his entire life to do what he did Wednesday night at Citi Field.

His latest act of leadership arrived not in the sixth inning but the ninth, after Edwin Díaz walked his first two batters on 10 pitches. The embattled Mets closer was walking the tightrope of preserving a three-run lead when pitching coach Jeremy Hefner called for a mound visit. 

Díaz tried to pump himself up by repeating, “Let’s go, let’s go.” That’s when Lindor got in Díaz’s ear: “Don’t say, ‘let’s go,'” Lindor told him. “Just do it.”

In an instant, Díaz, who’d been struggling to locate, locked in and threw his 99 mph fastballs right where he wanted them — blowing them by pinch-hitter Kody Clemens for a strikeout. After inducing a flyout, Díaz quickly got ahead of postseason titan Kyle Schwarber before putting him away with a 101 mph heater to shut the door on the NL East champions’ season. 

As the Mets’ dugout swarmed the field, something magnificent ensued: Rather than rush to the mound, the entire Mets roster sprinted to where Lindor was standing in the infield dirt and enveloped him with a hug. Then, and only then, did his emotionless facade fade away. He smiled, he cried, he laughed, and he looked around at the Citi Field crowd and took it all in. 

“We’re blessed to do this in front of the fans,” a red-eyed Lindor told FOX’s Tom Verducci. “We just keep climbing. My at-bat doesn’t come up if it wasn’t for the guys in front of me. Today I was the one who drove in runs, but it could have been anybody.”

But it was most likely to be Lindor, and it allowed a long-suffering fan base to witness a series win in Flushing for the first time since 2000.

“Great ball players do great things,” Mets owner Steve Cohen said of Lindor’s slam. “It was bases loaded. It was a big moment, so I was standing up. You knew something was going to happen.”

As has been his style this fall, Lindor was straight-faced and locked in as he rounded the bases following his homer. Somehow, he was the only one keeping it together while the rest of Queens lost their minds. Outfielder Jesse Winker described Lindor as a “stone-cold killer.” Lindor’s low-key reactions are a departure from the explosive, celebratory displays he used to show in his previous postseasons with Cleveland. A few teammates asked Lindor about it, and he told them that he wouldn’t celebrate until the job was done, until the Mets got the final out of the World Series. 

Just 24 hours earlier, Lindor said this was the calmest he’s ever felt in his six career trips to the playoffs. 

“I don’t know, for some reason the reactions from me this year haven’t been as jumpy or as excited,” he said Tuesday. “I don’t know if it has to do with being tired or if it has to do with just trying to stay in the moment, that I don’t have that crazy reaction I usually have. It’s just, I’m in a good place right now. I’m living the life I always wanted.”

So are the Mets.

As the team celebrated on the field in dark black T-shirts soaked in champagne, one fan held up a sign that said, “Believe in miracles.” Another read “DESTINY” in orange lettering. That’s what the 2024 Mets are playing like: a team of destiny that is resilient above all else. When they rolled into spring training, the Mets had a 2.2% chance of winning the NLCS, according to FanGraphs’ playoff odds. That same projection system gave them a 1% chance of winning the World Series. Now, the Mets are just eight victories away. 

Stearns had a few choice words for those who’ve criticized this Mets’ core — led by Lindor, Alonso and Brandon Nimmo — and questioned whether they could win big games.

“I think they’ve shown that’s bull****,” he said. “This core has been winning games since June 1. So, we can put that to bed right now.”

And yet, Mendoza asserted afterward that the Mets, who in fact have the best record in baseball since June 1, haven’t done anything yet. Lindor said he’s not even close to satisfied. The Mets are enjoying the moment, no doubt. But they’re still hungry, and that should be a terrifying sign for their next opponent. The Mets enter the NLCS as perhaps the most consistent team in baseball. 

“This is what I wanted. I came here to play winning baseball and get opportunities to try to win a World Series,” Lindor said, his play having already carried these Mets further than anyone outside of their clubhouse imagined. “We got to keep on climbing.” 

Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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