NEW YORK — Francisco Lindor hit a grand slam in the sixth inning — his latest clutch swing in an extraordinary season full of them — and the New York Mets reached the National League Championship Series with a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.
Edwin Diaz struck out Kyle Schwarber with two runners aboard to end it as New York finished off the rival Phillies in Game 4 of their best-of-five Division Series, winning 3-1 to wrap up a postseason series at home for the first time in 24 years.
Immediately to follow in a raucous clubhouse, the Mets’ first champagne-soaked clinching celebration in Citi Field’s 16-season history.
After three days of rest, New York will open the best-of-seven NLCS on Sunday at the San Diego Padres or Los Angeles Dodgers. San Diego held a 2-1 lead in their NLDS heading into Game 4 on Wednesday night.
For the NL East champion Phillies, who won 95 games and finished six ahead of the wild-card Mets during the regular season, it was a bitter exit early in the playoffs and a disappointing step backward after they advanced to the 2022 World Series and then lost Games 6 and 7 of the 2023 NLCS at home to Arizona.
After falling short again in October, Bryce Harper and the Phillies are still looking for the franchise’s third championship.
Perhaps overanxious at the plate with so much on the table, the Mets left the bases loaded in the first and second and stranded eight runners overall through the first five innings.
They put three runners on again in the sixth, this time with nobody out, before No. 9 batter Francisco Alvarez grounded into a force at the plate against All-Star reliever Jeff Hoffman.
With the season on the line, Phillies manager Rob Thomson then summoned closer Carlos Estevez to face Lindor, who drove a 2-1 fastball clocked at 99 mph into Philadelphia’s bullpen in right-center, sending the sold-out crowd of 44,103 into a delirious, bouncing, throbbing frenzy.