So often this season, we’ve only seen Dominic Smith on the sidelines — cheering the Mets from the top of his lungs, rallying the crowd on the railing of the dugout and wheeling onto the field with his legendary scooter.
Trailing the Braves by two runs in the bottom of the 11th inning, Smith stepped away from his role as the laid-back bench player and claimed center stage as the game-winning hero. In his first at-bat since sustaining a left foot stress fracture on July 26, Smith blasted a three-run moonshot for his first-career walk-off home run.
The Mets toppled the Braves, 7-6, and capped a thrilling three-game sweep of Atlanta to close the 2019 season on the highest of notes. The Amazin’s achieved their first winning season in three years with a 86-76 record and a third-place finish in the National League East.
“I’m still lost for words,” Smith said. “For me, all I wanted to do was get back this year. I didn’t care what I did for the rest of the year. All I cared about was my team winning. We fought to the last week. You just can’t count this group out.”
Smith was told he wouldn’t be able to play again this year when he went down with a foot fracture before the trade deadline. To that diagnosis, the 24-year-old said “absolutely not” and worked even harder to contribute to the Mets’ season. It certainly wasn’t the first time Smith was held back.
“He was trying so hard to get on the field, working his butt off,” Michael Conforto said. “It just didn’t work out for him to get an at-bat the last couple months. In the end, it was perfect.”
The first baseman was all too familiar with adversity this season. Smith was denied the first-base job after Pete Alonso’s power-slugging bat won the Mets over. In May, Smith was demoted to the minor leagues because the Mets couldn’t find a starting position for him. The Los Angeles native said that was an emotional day for him, and his teammates were disappointed and shocked at the front-office’s decision.
But Smith fought his way back to that season-ending at-bat for a moment that Alonso said could not have been scripted better.
“I couldn’t of dreamed of anything like this,” Smith said. “If I went up there and got out, I still would’ve been happy, just as satisfied, to make it back to the game. All the glory to God. That wasn’t me up there hitting, that was the man upstairs. I don’t even know what to say, how to think. I can’t even wrap my head around anything right now.”
Noah Syndergaard allowed three earned runs on five hits over seven innings to close out the year, striking out nine batters over 99 pitches. Syndergaard completed his fifth season as a Met on a career-high 4.28 ERA and 202 strikeouts over 32 starts and 197.2 innings pitched.
Mickey Callaway — whose own future with the Mets is precarious — made sure his everyday players received a proper exit off the field. Robinson Cano, J.D. Davis and Todd Frazier were some of those starters that were substituted in-game to a standing ovation from the Mets crowd. They tipped their caps to the fans and shook hands with teammates in the dugout.
The crowd also showed its appreciation for Alonso in the 11th, when he was substituted for Smith. Alonso finished his rookie campaign as the first Met and rookie in baseball’s modern era (since 1900) to lead the Major Leagues outright in home runs (53). Remarkably, Alonso is the seventh Met to play in at least 161 games in a season. He completed his first year in the big leagues with 120 RBI, tied for the third-highest total in Mets history.
But the area that needs the most attention this offseason — the bullpen — fittingly suffered another gut-punch in the Mets’ final game of the year.
Paul Sewald blew the save opportunity and coughed up a revenge shot to former Met Adeiny Hechavarria to tie the game at 4-4 in the ninth inning. Hechavarria’s solo dinger was the Mets’ 36th home run allowed in the ninth inning this year — a Major League record.
Hechavarria, a super-utility infielder the Mets released the day before he was due a $1 million signing bonus in August, took out his grievances by way of the long ball. Walker Lockett, the Mets fourth reliever of the day, allowed back-to-back home runs to Hechavarria and Adam Duvall in the 11th inning.
All year long, however, the Mets refused to die. They walked away from Game No. 162 with 38 come-from-behind wins and eight walk-off victories. It was fitting that the Amazin’s closed their season with that same attitude.
“This is going to stink going home and having to watch all this,” Callaway said of being eliminated from postseason contention. “As a manager, having to sit there and watch the playoffs, it’s not fun. You’re pretty pissed off every game you watch. The next month is going to suck.”
