Francisco Lindor won't let the Mets' party stop

Fans chanted “MVP” as Francisco Lindor came on to lead the Mets in for a run, the bases juiced and one out in the sixth. The Citi Field faithful thought partly with their hearts and partly with the vast knowledge of how much this guy means to the Mets. In a word: everything.

As if leading a second comeback and winning the playoffs in hated Atlanta wasn't enough for a team that was supposed to be in transition, Lindor's encore heroics were straight out of a movie. With the crowd chanting and Lindor desperately needing a hit after five innings of offensive frustration from the Mets, he hit a grand slam home run to beat the almost equally hated Phillies and send the Mets to the National League Championship Series, which everyone She thought she would watch at home.

Phillies star Carlos Estevez was signed for exactly this occasion and was used specifically to move Lindor to his supposedly weaker left side. Instead, Lindor reversed Estevez's misplaced 99.4 mph 2-in-1 fastball, sending it over the wall in right-center and ultimately giving the Mets a 4-1 win in the final biggest game of theirs crazy season.

“Of course. Why not? He just comes through again and again,” crowed Mets owner Steve Cohen in the champagne-soaked clubhouse. “Let's keep going.”

This team doesn't want to stop. And Lindor, at least always the MVP of this team, won't let that happen.

Citi Field fans, having a two-day party watching this team progress before their eyes, turned up the volume as Lindor calmly circled the bases. His calm demeanor never wavered from the beginning of their victorious five-stop, three-city journey to the return to Queens.

“He's ready. He's a cold guy. “He’s the coldest guy I’ve ever been with,” Harrison Bader said as the celebratory champagne flowed from him.

“It’s colder than that champagne, baby,” Bader decided.

Lindor, known as Mr. Smile, grinned slightly at the thought, but no one stayed calmer during this wild ride. He looks determined and only flashes his famous smile sparingly. He has his eyes on the big prize and knows there is still a long way to go.

They've already come a long way, of course, and they've done it in style, winning elimination games, games in their final stretch, games in places they hate against teams they hate even more. And even if they didn't want to say it, this was almost a must.

They couldn't have liked the idea of ​​returning to Philly to face Zack Wheeler in Game 5, the ex-Met who has become the league's best pitcher and who they didn't touch in their comeback win in Game 1 . It was like Mike Scott in 1986. The Mets didn't want to go back.

Speaking of best: Lindor is the best hitter on the team, perhaps the best defender in the league and therefore the very best leader. He won't win the MVP award that the crowd keeps clamoring for. But before Ohtani became superhuman, he had a case. People in LA never understood this, and it's easy to see why. The numbers don't add up. But sometimes you just have to be there.

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He is the rock this surprise team needs and everyone around him knows it. He thanked Bader for his thoughts and praised Bader for being such a great teammate.

“I celebrate inside, but at the end of the day the work isn’t done,” Lindor said.

Alonso called the explosion “the momentum of his life.”

There have been a few of those lately, but the same can be said for the team that started 0-5, struggled through the end of May and looked like a potential seller. In fact, it was a wild swing.

There's a party going on in Flushing now, and the way things are going, it might last a while. Lindor's walk-up song “My Girl” played on the field 30 minutes later. The crowd behind the dugout no longer moved.

Their endless journey was just the prelude to the biggest soirée of all, a homecoming befitting the surprising Kings of Queens (and perhaps the National League).

Lindor gets help. Alonso has happily revived his Mets legacy. Jose Iglesias has overhauled his entire career as a representative. Mark Vientos established himself as a star. The same was true for David Peterson, who has evolved from a borderline rotation guy into a star starter and shutdown reliever.

It's the boys. Beyond that, it's the journey. Someone could write a book about it.

Thanks to the Lindor home run in Atlanta as he carried the team on his sore back, they snuck into the dance and were among the top two to qualify on a paper tiebreaker. He's better now and feels the same way.

“It feels great to be able to move on,” Lindor said.

In this season of unprecedented parity, a rare year without a 100-game winner, the Mets have everything they could ask for. This is an opportunity.

“Guess where we’re going?” said Steve Cohen. “We’re going to California.”

These Mets were the first team to qualify for a championship series. They are full of surprises.