LOS ANGELES – And finally, the playoff pumpkin settled at the bottom of a blue trash can in the visitors clubhouse at Dodger Stadium, nestled between bottles of Pacifico and Presidente. Its magic expired two wins before the World Series.

The lights went out late Sunday night during a Mets summer that lasted long enough to include the fall chill. New York will play next spring, with a different roster, different atmosphere and different expectations.

Dodgers 10, Mets 5, the pennant to Los Angeles.

Unfortunately, the season that no one saw coming ended in a way that no one thought was good.

“We didn’t want to lose,” Mark Vientos said. “We wanted to continue, we wanted to win the World Series. That was the plan. It sucks.”

“No one,” Jesse Winker said, “had the end in mind.”

Jesse Winker watches the Dodgers celebrate. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Imagn Images)

In the clubhouse afterward, there were handshakes and hugs, sparkling eyes and thousand-yard stares.

“I’m just super proud of everything we’ve accomplished, everyone here. There’s no one else I’d do it with,” starter Sean Manaea said, his voice choked with emotion. “These guys were grinding all year. It’s sports. It just is what it is.”

“It sucks not to win the last game of the year,” Ryne Stanek said. “It doesn’t feel good, especially when you know you have a good team. We did a lot of special things as a group and just fell short.”

Indeed, the 63rd season of Mets baseball was not supposed to last 175 games, nor was it supposed to last until the third week of October and a showdown with the world-beating Dodgers. And yet, as the Mets rode the wave of Grimace, of OMG, of the playoff pumpkin, of so many things you’ll remember with a smile for years to come, they made you believe it couldn’t possibly end so quickly. .

What a season.

Thanks, Mets fans. We couldn’t have done it without you. #LGM pic.twitter.com/ggd0NpWKQX

— x – New York Mets (@Mets) October 21, 2024

New York was ultimately overshadowed by an unstoppable Dodgers lineup that pushed the pitching staff to their limits. For weeks, the Mets had been checking the fuel gauge on Manaea, on Luis Severino, on Jose Quintana and on a makeshift bullpen that had punched above its weight down the stretch. They had driven past O so long that they could see light at the end of the tunnel. Just a few more starts and the pennant and a World Series championship would be within reach.

Instead, the tank ran dry against Los Angeles. The Mets surrendered 46 runs in six games – more than any other National League team has ever surrendered in a series, more than the Mets had allowed in the title-winning postseasons of 1969 or 1986 as a whole.

“I wouldn’t say we ran out of gas. I would say we left it all out there,” said Stanek, one of the heroes in the final month of the season. “We have left absolutely no stone unturned. We worked our butts off and did as much as we could.”

The main perpetrator for Los Angeles on Sunday night was Tommy Edman. Historians of the Mets will nod at this: the toughest October moments for this franchise usually don’t involve stars. No, the Mets’ playoff trauma is caused by names like Sojo and Scioscia, Gillaspie and Guillen. Several generations have their own devastating LCS home run from a light-hitting catcher.

Edman added his name to the list on Sunday. The skinny shortstop turned cleanup hitter — a sideshow of a trade deadline addition for LA — delivered the two biggest hits of Game 6: a two-run double in the first and a two-run homer in the third off Manaea. Edman claimed NLCS MVP honors, joining luminaries like Eddie Pérez and Jeff Suppan (and yes, Orel Hershiser in his prime).

For the Mets, less thought was given to the details of this 81st and final loss of the season than to an adventure that lasted more than eight months. They reported for spring training the day after the Super Bowl; the season ended 252 days later, coinciding with a rematch of that football match.

‘S…, man, look where we come from. Look at the journey we’ve been on,” said JD Martinez. “This is not something to hang our heads about.”

“You have a strange mix of guys who came together, bonded and have been through so much,” said Pete Alonso, on the brink of free agency. “You can look at every guy in this locker room and they did something to get us here.”

Swaggy is in the record books 📚@Mark Vientos_5 | #LGM pic.twitter.com/OXQibHcKfQ

— x – New York Mets (@Mets) October 21, 2024

“The chemistry was very close. We loved each other and pushed for each other,” Vientos said, the past tense already stinging. “Every day I came to the ballpark it was fun.”

“We are all brothers here,” Manaea said. “That was one of the coolest, most magical runs I’ve ever been a part of.”

“It was an amazing roller coaster,” said Francisco Lindor, who experienced these g-forces more than most. He was booed for the entire month of April. He was celebrated with MVP chants through September. He inspired The Temptations to sing in Queens by October.

From here the task doesn’t get any easier. Alonso is one of ten players on the NLCS roster eligible for free agency. That list includes Manaea, the club’s second-half ace, Stanek and Phil Maton in the bullpen, Winker and Martinez and José Iglesias in the lineup.

“You never know with this stuff,” Brandon Nimmo said. “You don’t want to think, ‘Oh yeah, there’s always next year.’ Because I believe you should try to take advantage of the opportunities in front of you. And you don’t know when the next one will come.”

“Now we’ve raised the bar,” Mendoza said. “This is what we should strive for every year, to play well into October.”

And that’s the problem. It took 252 days and a menagerie of magical memes to get here. That’s all being reset now.

“I’m just ready for next year,” Vientos said, stone-faced. “I’m ready to get back to work.”

(Top photo of Mets’ Mark Vientos: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Imagn Images)