Reds sneak into playoffs, Mets eliminated on final day

There will be October baseball in Cincinnati.

The Reds completed a thrilling late-September run to clinch the final NL postseason spot Sunday following the New York Mets' 4-0 loss to the Miami Marlins.

Reds manager Terry Francona said the feeling of making it to the postseason never gets old after reaching the playoffs in his first season with the club.

"They're a team, and they act like a team," Francona told Jim Day of FanDuel Sports Network Cincinnati. "They play like a team. We go through tough times like a team. Now we're gonna party a little bit like a team."

The Mets' loss eliminated them from postseason contention.

"It's kinda beyond frustration. It's just straight up disappointing," Mets first baseman Pete Alonso said postgame, according to SNY. "There's no other way to sugarcoat it. It's just the way it is. Super talented team, and the reality is we fell short. We didn't even get to October."

The Reds are locked into the NL's No. 6 seed and will travel to Los Angeles to face the defending champion Dodgers in a best-of-three wild-card series. The winner will face the second-seeded Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS.

The playoff berth is the Reds' first since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and their first in a 162-game campaign since 2013. Cincinnati hasn't won a playoff series since sweeping the Dodgers in the 1995 NLDS.

As for the Mets, their early exit completes a stunning free fall for a team that owned the second-highest payroll in the majors and the best record in baseball (45-24) on June 12.

"I take responsibility. I'm the manager," Mets skipper Carlos Mendoza said. "It starts with me. I've got to take a long look here, how I need to get better. That was the messaging to the whole team. This is unacceptable."