NEW YORK — Edwin Díaz couldn’t stop pacing. But he wasn’t nervous.
Elite closers like Díaz don’t get nervous. They can’t. You don’t earn a $100 million contract by sweating like crazy in big moments. Instead, Díaz and his ilk must channel that intensity—a blaring trumpet call, 44,000 screaming fans, a one-run game in the ninth inning—into focused adrenaline, fuel for a fire.
But with his Mets, the best team in the National League, holding a 2-1 lead into the eighth inning on Sunday, Díaz refused to let himself cool off. He had already pitched the eighth inning and had been asked to pitch the ninth. Díaz, who had worked multiple frames only four times this season, couldn’t shake the buzz, couldn’t get his heart rate down.
So he paced back and forth between the dugout and the clubhouse, his metal studs filling the otherwise silent room with a soft rattle as the ball game continued outside. A rhythm in the chaos.
“No sitting,” he told reporters after the game when asked about his between-innings routine.
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In the eighth inning, Díaz was called up atypically early by his manager, Carlos Mendoza, to face the top-tier Philadelphia Phillies. Mendoza later explained that he wanted his best guy against their best guys: Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, Bryce Harper.
And so the lights at Citi Field went out and the first notes of Díaz’s famous opening song, “Narco,” blared from the stadium speakers. Many fans, not expecting the star player to arrive an inning too early, threw their arms in the air in excitement. Díaz then shut out the side, striking out Schwarber and Harper on 11 pitches.
As Díaz descended the dugout steps, Citi Field roaring behind him, Mendoza informed his closer that the ninth was his, too. A day after making four outs, Díaz was asked to work two innings. A loss would cut the Mets’ postseason lead to one game over the Braves, who welcome the Mets for a series-clinching series beginning Tuesday.
Desperate times, desperate measures. Mendoza pushed the boundaries and his closer.
It worked. In the ninth inning, Diaz bent but didn’t break. His control wavering, he gave up two hits, allowing the go-ahead run to reach second base with two outs. Mendoza called out from the dugout for a huddle. The manager offered strategic advice and words of encouragement. Reliever Ryne Stanek hurried to get ready in the Mets’ bullpen. Diaz wouldn’t face Schwarber, who was on the deck, again. The Phillies, who would win the NL East with a win, sensed an opening.
Díaz slammed it shut.
With two strikes, he smashed a 98.2-mph fastball past Kody Clemens, knocking him out and ending the game. It was the kind of fastball that somehow seems to gain velocity as it flies toward the plate, the kind that has made Díaz a career and a fortune. Tonight, it gave the Mets their sixth win in their last seven tries.
“We’ve protected him all year,” Mendoza explained after the game, referring to how the club has been cautious in its use of Díaz. “But now it’s time for the big boy.”
The win capped a blowout home stretch in Queens for a surging Mets team that finds itself in the second NL wild-card spot (thanks to a tiebreaker over the Diamondbacks) and two games above Atlanta with six games remaining in the season. New York went 6-1 against the Nationals and Phillies in its final seven home games of the season despite the team’s best player, shortstop Francisco Lindor, being out with a back problem.
Lindor’s status remains uncertain. He did baseball activities on Sunday but didn’t seem particularly comfortable. If he does return this regular season, it won’t be at full strength. The shortstop, who likely will finish second in the NL MVP race, admitted as much. But the Mets haven’t missed a beat in his absence.
If the Phillies had won on Sunday, they would have been spraying champagne in the visitors’ locker room all night. Instead, the Mets forced their division rivals to wait a few days. Brandon Nimmo delivered the knockout blow, a go-ahead homer in the sixth inning off likely NL Cy Young finalist Zack Wheeler. Wheeler was otherwise fantastic that night, allowing his only other run on an RBI single to Tyrone Taylor in the second. A trio of unknown Mets pitchers — Tylor Megill, Phil Maton and José Butto — traded outs with Wheeler before handing the ball to Díaz.
Megill didn’t make the Mets’ Opening Day rotation until Kodai Senga was injured. Maton was a minor-league, pre-trade deadline acquisition in July. Butto is a rookie who began the year as a spot starter but has blossomed in the bullpen. All great success stories, but none better exemplifies the spirit of these Mets than Díaz.
After signing his landmark contract in November 2022, Diaz dramatically tore his ACL during the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and his road back to glory has been bumpy. The two-time All-Star struggled mightily in the first half of this season. A four-run implosion against the hapless Miami Marlins in mid-May saw his ERA rise to 5.50. Diaz burst into tears in the visiting locker room after that game. Then a shoulder injury sent him to the IL. Reed Garrett became the de facto closer.
But like the Mets, Díaz stayed the course and rediscovered his groove in the second half. As the Mets have returned to relevance and the heat of postseason contention, Díaz has shined. He has a 2.42 ERA since early July. He has allowed just one run in 11 appearances in September. His two-inning performance on Sunday only confirmed the obvious.
“I feel really good,” he said. “I came back from my shoulder injury at the beginning of the season, but now I feel the rhythm, the rhythm that I want to have.”
The Mets are also feeling the rhythm.
