NEW YORK — Heading into Game 2 of the National League wild-card series, the Mets had been reminding themselves who they are: the Mets. Once that designation might have brought scorn. But now it connoted a 101-win team composed of a starting rotation that struck out batters more often than any other (9.42 per nine innings), the best closer in the sport (Edwin Díaz, whose 50.2% strikeout rate is tied for the best in history, minimum 60 innings) and a lineup that finished second in the NL in on-base percentage (.332, one point behind the Dodgers).
So when they told one another to play like the Mets, that meant play confidently. And it meant win.
They brought it up in hitters’ meetings, in the clubhouse, in the dugout.
