The San Francisco Giants defeated the New York Mets in the NL Wild Card game by the final score of 3-0 to advance to the NLDS. For a full postgame recap follow the link below…

http://m.mlb.com/gameday/giants-vs-mets/2016/10/05/487596?#game=487596,game_state=final,game_tab=box

Game Notes:

• Jeurys Familia gave up a go-ahead homer in the top of the 9th inning with a 3-run shot off the bat of third baseman Conor Gillaspie.
• Noah Syndergaard was absolutely dominant tonight going 7 scoreless innings, while only allowing 2 hits, 3 walks, and 10 strikeouts.
• The Mets were only able to muster 4 hits off of Giants starter Madison Bumgarner who went the distance tonight.
• The Mets were 0-4 with runners in scoring position tonight.

Well for the second straight season the Mets are watching another team celebrate a postseason clinching victory on their own home field. It doesn’t get much more heartbreaking than putting the saves leader in Major League Baseball on the mound in the top of the ninth of a scoreless game, to only get taken deep by an unheralded player who has never hit more than seven home runs in his career more than once. As a Mets fan as I saw Gillaspie round the bases, I could only go back to 2006 when Yadier Molina went deep and left me with my jaw on the floor. It is a truly disappointing ending to what was a truly remarkable season for a team that battled tooth and nail to get where they were tonight. It will definitely take me some time to get over tonight’s loss, but at the end of the day this team’s resiliency will not go unnoticed by fans everywhere after tonight’s wounds heal. 

Speaking of going unnoticed, Noah Syndergaard’s performance tonight should not go unnoticed despite tonight’s loss. Thor mowed through the Giants lineup with ease by pumping his upper 90’s fastball and mid 90’s slider to hitters, keeping them off balance for seven innings. The only wish  you could have, is you wish he could’ve lasted longer than seven tonight with how dominant he was. Syndgergaard has taken a huge step forward this season, as he has entrenched himself as the Mets top starter, and as long as he stays healthy he will be one of the best pitchers in baseball for a long long time. It’s unfortunate we were unable to give him the run support he deserved as he put on a hell of a show, but when you are opposing the best postseason pitcher of our era it certainly can become an understandably tall mountain to climb. 

I eventually will have a recap of the Mets season, as I among many Mets fans will reflect heavily over the coming days on tonight’s loss. During that time I am also going to reflect on the successful season the Mets have had despite all the adversity they faced. Tonight hurts. There is no other way to say it. However I hope the Mets are able to carry the past two heartbreaking postseasons into next season as a prime source of motivation. They should also take into next season the fact that they played as a team when it mattered most. Curtis Granderson’s crashing catch at the wall in the sixth inning that stranded Denard Span at second base is a perfect example of that. Granderson has been playing center field for the Mets out of need since the beginning of August and has done as good of a job as anybody could’ve asked. 

There are plenty of offseason questions that will surround this team, including the multi-million dollar Yoenis Cespedes question. But those questions can wait, at least for now.