NEW YORK — In some ways, the stakes were symbolic: hard not to call it a rematch when the team that eliminated you before the postseason had barely begun is back into town; hard not to wonder whether the man on the mound would be out for — and up for — revenge.
After a 101-win regular season and 175 days in first place, the 2022 New York Mets were eliminated over three agonizing games in Queens last October. Their ace, the man who was supposed to be the battle-tested war hero — insofar as the postseason is analogous to combat, and perhaps no one else makes it seem that way more than he does — failed them in dramatic fashion at the outset, and the Mets never recovered.