MIAMI — This is what culture change looks like.
Celebrations on the field and in the clubhouse, late rallies, enthusiasm off the charts, young players pulling for one another, solid pitching and victory.
Brodie Van Wagenen wanted to change the culture and he did for the Mets. It took an offseason of building, some bravado and bringing in the right pieces, a spring to pull it all together and a first week filled with big hits, unselfish play and even a little love.
The Mets have shown to be much more than a fearsome group of starting pitchers the first week of 2019.
Just listen to Dom Smith after the Mets’ most exciting win of the year Monday night that featured a game-tying home run by Juan Lagares, a key pinch hit from Smith that started the ninth-inning four-run rally, a break of a call when Lagares reached first on a hit by pitch after appearing to bunt foul for strike three, and, of course, a bomb, the first major league home run by Pete Alonso, that sealed the Mets’ 7-3 win over the Marlins at Marlins Park.
After the celebration shower in the Mets clubhouse for Alonso, Smith put it all in perspective.
“This is fun, I came up with a lot of these guys and we really feed off of each other,’’ Smith told The Post. “It’s a lot different. Brodie started it off at the beginning of the offseason — he was vocal about it. Very aggressive. He put a great group of guys in this locker room and we are not going to give up nothing.’’
These Mets will not roll over. Not givin’ up nothing.
“We don’t care what inning it is. We don’t care who’s up, we already believe in each other and we believe each other can get the job done,’’ Smith said. “As you can see, that’s why we are having this success right now and playing baseball.
“We’ve got a really, really good team,” Smith said. “We love it because we’re very underrated and people aren’t talking about us, people don’t know what to expect because we got so many guys where there is so little information on them.”
These are the Stealth Bomber Mets.
“Exactly,’’ Smith said. “It makes it real interesting when we come to play teams.’’
The Mets have scored 23 runs over the past three games, destroying the Nationals and Marlins bullpens along the way.
“We’re a team,” said Smith, who leads the team with a .500 batting average and will get his first start Tuesday night against the Marlins. “We’ve been a team since the first day of spring training. Our team confidence is at an all-time high.”
The Legend of Pete continues to grow and that helps.
As Van Wagenen went into Mickey Callaway’s office after the game, he pointed out Alonso’s success is about now, not about roster manipulation six years down the road. Good for him.
Of course this start comes with a warning. Remember the Mets were 11-1 last year at the start, then the roof collapsed. Perhaps with a better culture, that might not happen with this group.
Good teams make their own breaks. Across the way, poor Don Mattingly looked at how critical calls went against his young Marlins all night.
“I don’t understand a lot of it tonight, to be honest with you,’’ Donnie Baseball said. “There was a call at third base on a check swing, that wasn’t close. I understand the whole Marlins aren’t supposed to be good this year. I guess it’s OK to pile on. But … it’s got to be better than that. It was shaky tonight.’’
True, but the 3-1 Mets took advantage of those breaks.
Jeff McNeil lined an RBI double after taking a close pitch with two strikes in the second. Lagares homered to tie the game at 3-3 in the seventh to set up the heroics. After Smith beat the shift and the umpire’s call on the hit batter went Lagares’ way and Brandon Nimmo struck out, Amed Rosario, who was moved to the leadoff spot by Callaway, singled home Smith for the lead.
Good culture. Good results.



