The best way to describe the New York Mets’ 2022 season would be like having candy in front of your face and then having it ripped away. As Mets fans, this should have been expected, as every year we “Met.” We’ve made it this far yet we still found a way to “Met.” Before we take a look at the Mets vs Padres series, let’s take a look at the Washington Nationals at Citi Field. 

The Nationals came to town on the 3rd of October, but didn’t play until the 4th since Monday’s game got postponed due to the rain New York was getting from Hurricane Ian, making for a doubleheader on Tuesday. 

The Mets have dominated in doubleheaders- they weren’t swept in any of their double-headers this season and only split 4 of 9 of them, which is pretty hard to do. They won the first game 4-2 and the second game 8-0. And for the last game of the 2022 regular season, which I was in attendance for, the Mets went into the Padres series on a positive note by winning 9-2, which led to a sweep over the Nationals. On Monday, October 3rd the Braves lost to the Marlins 4-0.

The Mets still were within reach of the division up until the second game of the doubleheader. The Braves were able to clinch the NL East against Miami by winning 2-1, while the Mets played against the Nats during the night game. The Miami Marlins had the bases loaded in the 8th but failed to deliver. In the third and final game, the Braves lost 12-9. After that loss and the Mets’ win, the division ended in a tie. All the Mets had to do was win one game against the Braves in their last series. This is upsetting considering that we have now been eliminated in the wild card round- if we had won one more game we would have avoided all of this 

The Mets’ starting pitching had arguably the best rotation in baseball when everyone was healthy. Starting with Jacob deGrom, the best pitcher of our generation, Max Scherzer, a future Hall of Famer, and Chris Bassitt who has been the best number three starter in MLB. This is followed by Taijuan Walker and Carlos Carrasco, who have been great all season. 

Although the pitching has been impeccable all season, those same pitchers cost us a win against the Braves and a potential World Series championship. 

On Friday night, the Mets took a hard loss to the Padres by a score of 7-1. The only run we put on the board was a home run by Eduardo Escobar. deGrom took the mound on Saturday, and was it his best start? No, but he got the job done. They won 7-3, forcing the Padres to play the rubber game against us. On the last game of the New York Mets’ 2022 season. Chris Bassitt faced off against Joe Musgrove. The Mets took a devastating loss of 6-0, while only getting 1 hit. 

Some suspicious things were going on with Joe Musgrove that night, some might argue. As soon as Musgrove threw his first pitch many Mets fans and staff noticed his ears were extremely shiny and his spin rate was up on all of his pitches, implying use of a foreign substance. Some made the argument that it was up only because he was pitching in the biggest game of his life and on top of all of that, he was pitching for his hometown team. Another reason to believe he didn’t cheat would be that not once during the game did he touch his ears. 

The Mets’ manager, Buck Showalter had the umpires do an inspection on Musgrove in the 6th inning, and found nothing. SNY’s own Gary Cohen stated on the post-game show, “I thought that considering the circumstances, 4–0, sixth inning, season on the line, it smacked of desperation, and it was fairly embarrassing, I thought, for Buck to do that in that spot.” 

Although this season ended on a sour note, in the last game of the regular season Jeff McNeil beat LA Dodgers’ first baseman Freddie Freeman for the batting title. It was a pretty special moment to be in the stands as McNeil exited the dugout to remove his cap in front of the crowd. 

Next year will be a whole different ball game with a handful of team members leaving due to free agency. Will the Mets be able to win the 2023 World Series?