On Sunday, October 9th, in the third game of the best-of-3 Wild Card series, the New York Mets were eliminated from the playoffs. The red-hot San Diego Padres dominated the Mets in the “winner-take-all” game, winning 6-0 in a triumphant fashion. 

The New York Mets won 101 games during the regular season. Despite this, the Mets’ season left many fans disappointed. Even after leading the NL East by 10 games at the beginning of July, the Mets were unable to capitalize on winning the NL East division- leaving many fans frustrated with the team’s conclusion to the 2022 regular season.

However, the Wild Card series against the San Diego Padres represented a beacon of hope, giving them an opportunity to redeem their division loss. 

The first game highlighted a clear victory for the Padres. In the 7-1 winning effort, Padres’ Trent Grisham, Josh Bell, Jurickson Profar, and Manny Machado pounded a total of 4 home runs off of Mets’ co-ace Max Scherzer. Padres’ ace Yu Darvish was in total command for the 7 innings he pitched, only allowing 1 run on 6 hits. Eduardo Escobar was the lone highlight for the Mets- crushing a solo shot to center field in the 5th inning of the ballgame.

Leading into game 2, the Mets had their backs against the wall in a must-win situation. Mets’ ace Jacob Degrom weighed in on the dire situation–“Win or go home… [I] Love pitching here. Mets fans have been great to me. Didn’t want to disappoint.” Degrom pitched 6 innings, allowing 3 earned runs in the 7-3 winning effort. Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor each mashed a home run early on in the game and Jeff McNeil hit a 2 run double in the bottom of the 7th inning to break the game open. 

Tied at 1 win, the Mets and Padres were set up for a winner-take-all duel on Sunday night at Citi Field. Starting pitcher Chris Bassit had a subpar performance in the Mets’ most critical game of the season, and allowed 3 runs in only 4 innings of work. The Mets were stunned by Joe Musgrove and his impressive start. He was dealing so well that Mets manager Buck Showalter had umpires check Musgrove for a sticky substance on his ear, but umpires found nothing on him. Musgrove went 7 innings and only allowed one hit to the Mets in the 6-0 Padres win.

After taking 2 of the 3 games, the Padres celebrated their victory and advancement to the NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Mets and their fans went home disappointed. 

The Mets were plagued with several issues in the series against the Padres, including lackluster offense and underwhelming pitching performances by both Max Scherzer and Chris Bassit.