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The scrappy, feisty, big-hearted $330 million Mets failed to sweep the Subway Series, as they couldn’t overcome yet another impossibly uneven pitching matchup. But this seriously depleted team from Queens still deserves a gold star (and maybe a medal of black and blue) for surviving their stretch from hell and somehow posting a winning record for this brutally painful week. 

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza’s makeshift pitching plans, featuring a carousel of hurlers who’ve been DFA’d or may soon be, somehow won them two straight series against winning teams. The Mets have five starters on the injured list, they’re calling up relatively anonymous pitchers almost every other day, and yet they marched on, undeterred and unbowed. 

Truly, it’s quite an accomplishment the Mets outdid the overachieving Brewers and underachieving Yankees. This Subway Series finale, with $218M Yankees ace Max Fried facing yet another Mets bullpen game, seemed like giveaway day at Citi Field. But good for the Mets they didn’t treat it as such. 

“It was a helluva series. Even on a day like this, the guys fought back,” Mendoza said after the 6-4 defeat to the Yankees. “We got down and they kept fighting … proud of the guys.”