Resilient Mets remind why they're in NLCS with rout of Dodgers: 'That's who we are'

NEW YORK — Friday evening at Citi Field began with The Temptations singing their 1965 hit single "My Girl" in an ode to Francisco Lindor's walk-up song. Lindor, while warming up on the field, smiled and sang along to the lyrics. Pete Alonso, stretching before what could be his final home game as a Met, joined in, too, and pretty soon the crowd — understandably tense before an elimination game — relaxed a little. Watching the jovial scene unfold in Queens, it was hard to tell that the Mets had lost by eight runs on each of the previous two days and were facing elimination. 

If they seemed loose and carefree mere minutes before southpaw David Peterson threw the first pitch of the game, it's because that's how they showed up to Citi Field ahead of Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza walked into the hitters' meeting and everyone was smiling. Hours before their most important game of the year — yes, another one of those — New York's happy-go-lucky attitude foreshadowed the pain they would inflict on the Dodgers.

"That's who we are," Mendoza said. "There's no tomorrow for us. But we've been in this situation before. So, nothing new."

After Peterson stranded Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani on second in the first inning — lifting the crowd's energy from unease to optimism — Alonso followed by lifting a three-run blast off Jack Flaherty in the bottom of the frame. The Polar Bear's fourth home run of October was a harbinger of the offensive outburst that was to come. The Mets tallied 14 hits, the second-most in postseason franchise history, in their 12-6 win over the Dodgers in Game 5. 

The onslaught was a product of sticking to the plan, capitalizing on Flaherty's drop in velocity and