The last time the Dodgers visited Citi Field, the Mets bottomed out.
Los Angeles’ 10-3 win on May 29 completed a three-game sweep in Queens, dropping the Mets to a season-worst 11 games below .500.
Mets reliever Jorge López hurled his glove into the stands after being ejected from that game, then gave a profanity-filled media address before being released.
Francisco Lindor called a team meeting afterward in an effort to stop the bleeding. Many of his teammates spoke up.
And it worked.
The Mets went 67-40 over the final four months of the regular season, then won hardfought playoff series against the Brewers and Phillies to advance to the NLCS.
After splitting the first two games in Los Angeles, the Mets and Dodgers returned to Citi Field on Wednesday night for NLCS Game 3.
“I remember that meeting like yesterday,” said Mets left-hander Jose Quintana, who is scheduled to start Game 4 on Thursday.
“At that point, we sucked. We were doing really bad. … We said everything we [needed] to get better. I remember we said we need to prove it. We need to go out there and do better, and get your face in front of a mirror and think [about] what you need to do to get better, and work hard to do that. I think that meeting turned [things around] for us.”
Mets players have regularly referenced the importance of that meeting. During the Mets’ post-NLDS clubhouse celebration last week, Brandon Nimmo said the team acknowledged the “elephant in the room” that day.
When he called the meeting, Lindor was hitting .211. The shortstop hit .309 with 25 homers and a .952 OPS from that point on, establishing himself as the likely National League MVP runner-up behind the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani.
On May 31, the Mets called up Jose Iglesias, a 34-year-old journeyman who at the time was more than a full season removed from his last MLB game. The infielder quickly emerged as a difference-maker, hitting .337 in 85 games while releasing a Latin pop single, “OMG,” that became the Mets’ celebratory anthem.
“They are a completely different ball club than we saw [in May],” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Wednesday.
“Lindor is back to playing MVP-type baseball. [Sean] Manaea had a different arm slot. They didn’t have Iglesias on the roster. I think [Mark] Vientos was up and down at that point in time. He’s hitting two in their lineup 1729123179. There’s just a lot of different things.”
The Mets won two of three games against the Dodgers in Los Angeles during the teams’ first regular-season series back in April, but the Citi Field sweep less than six weeks later punctuated a stretch in which the Mets dropped eight of nine games.
That was so long ago that Dodgers star Mookie Betts said he hardly remembers it.
“They were a good team early, good team now,” Mookie Betts said Wednesday. “You don’t make it here by luck. Seems like they’ve always been a pretty good team.”
The team meeting marked one of numerous examples of the Mets’ resiliency, a trait they’ve demonstrated throughout the postseason. After losing NLCS Game 1 at Dodger Stadium in a 9-0 blowout, the Mets bounced back with a 7-3 victory in Game 2.
Asked if hosting the Dodgers again brought back memories of that late-May swoon, Mets slugger Pete Alonso said “not particularly,” though he acknowledged how much had changed since then.
“We’re in a way different spot,” Alonso said before NLCS Game 3. “We’re a different team than where we were at. I think for us, we’re right where we’re supposed to be.”
