NEW YORK — Terry Collins worried, because managers are paid to worry.
He knew what this night was going to be like at Citi Field. He knew what this city had been like since Saturday night, since Chase Utley rolled into Ruben Tejada and the National League Division Series began feeling like a morality play.
“I’ve got to keep things under control,” the New York Mets manager said.
Maybe he did, or maybe he didn’t need to, because on a night like none Citi Field had ever seen before, Collins’ Mets showed all the control he could hope for. They’re not yet in total control of this series, but three games in, they hold the high ground in every way possible.
They fed off the energy of a crowd that wanted revenge, using the emotion without listening to all the talk that accompanied it.
“There’s no need for any retaliation,” Michael Cuddyer said, after Monday night had turned into Tuesday morning and a series that was all about Chase Utley had been turned into a night that was all about the very impressive Mets. “The greatest retaliation is winning the game.”
We all know what happened Saturday night, when Utley rolled into Ruben Tejada and changed many things about this series. The Mets won’t forget, but in the time it took to get from Game 2 to Game 3, they realized what really mattered to them.
And when they finished up their 13-7 win, the one name that never seemed to be mentioned in the winning clubhouse was the one name that was on their fans’ minds all night.
We want Utley?
After this game, the Mets didn’t even want to talk about Chase Utley.
Why would they, one win away from a National League Championship Series? Why would they, after a game where Yoenis Cespedes, Curtis Granderson and Travis d’Arnaud all had huge hits?
Maybe you thought this game was supposed to be about Utley. The Mets always thought it was supposed to be about them.
They’d waited so long for this, worked so hard for this. They knew how important it was, and they knew how much fun they wanted to have.
“We kind of got a taste of playoff baseball out in Los Angeles,” David Wright said. “And it was amazing to come back home to this.”
They focused on the noise from the crowd and not on what the crowd was yelling. They focused a little on Tejada, who hobbled out to a huge ovation during player introductions, and almost not at all on Utley, who was loudly and understandably booed when he was introduced before the game (but never actually played in it).
The Mets were an angry team Saturday night, but they were a focused team by Monday.
“Even after the game, we knew it wasn’t going to be anything physical,” Cuddyer said. “This is a very professional group that knows what’s at stake.”
Plenty was at stake Monday, and it was always going to be that way, Utley or no Utley. This was the one game in the series that neither Clayton Kershaw nor Zack Greinke was going to start, and it began with the Mets knowing that Kershaw and Greinke are lined up for Game 4 Tuesday night and a Game 5 Thursday in Los Angeles, if necessary.
The Dodgers‘ plan to build a $300 million team with just two real starting pitchers seemed more than a little crazy while Brett Anderson and Alex Wood were giving up all those runs in Game 3, but it doesn’t look as bad with Kershaw and Greinke ready to pitch the two games they now absolutely need to win.
The Mets certainly don’t figure to score the 13 runs they scored Monday, the most any Mets team had scored in any of the franchise’s 77 postseason games (and the most a Dodgers team had allowed in any of that franchise’s 190 postseason games). Then again, they don’t need to.
“It doesn’t matter how many runs you score,” Cuddyer said when one questioner asked if this blowout was even better retaliation. “It’s not college football. Just win the game.”
Really, for the Mets, that’s all this night ever had to be about.
Sure, they loved seeing Tejada and thought it was great that the injured shortstop found a crutch with the Mets logo all over it. Sure, they loved hearing the fans, whom Wright compared to a Shea Stadium crowd (“loud and crazy”).
In the end, though, they understood what Collins wanted them to understand. They understood what was really important on this night.
Just win the game.
Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
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