LOS ANGELES -- And in the end, the playoff pumpkin settled at the bottom of a blue trash can in the visitors clubhouse at Dodger Stadium, nestled among bottles of Pacifico and Presidente, its magic expired two wins shy of the World Series.
Late Sunday night, the lights went out on a Mets summer that lasted long enough to know the autumn chill. New York will next play next spring, with a different roster, different vibes and different expectations.
Dodgers 10, Mets 5, the pennant to Los Angeles.
Alas, the season nobody saw coming ended in a way nobody saw fit.
"We didn't want to lose," Mark Vientos said. "We wanted to keep going, we wanted to win the World Series. That was the plan. It sucks."
"No one," Jesse Winker said, "envisioned it ending."
In the clubhouse after, there were handshakes and hugs, glistening eyes and thousand-yard stares.
"I'm just super proud of everything we accomplished, everyone here. There's nobody else I'd do it with," starter Sean Manaea said, his voice pausing with emotion. "These boys grinded, the whole year. It's sports. It just is what it is."
"It sucks not winning the last game of the year," Ryne Stanek said. "It doesn't feel good, especially when you know you've got a good team. We did a lot of special things as a group and just came up short."
Indeed, the 63rd season of Mets baseball was not supposed to last 175 games, was not supposed to extend into the third week of October and a confrontation with the world-beating Dodgers. And yet, as it did, as the Mets rode the wave of Grimace, of OMG, of the playoff pumpkin, of so many things you'll recall with a smile for years, they made you believe it couldn't possibly end this soon.
New York was done in eventually by an irrepressible Dodgers lineup that pushed its pitching staff to and beyond its 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 pushed beyond E for so long they could see light at the tunnel's end -- endure just another start or two, 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 over six games -- more than any other National League team has ever surrendered in a series, more than the Mets had allowed in either the 1969 or 1986 title-winning postseasons, 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 through the final month of the season. "We definitely didn't leave any stone unturned. We grinded our asses off and did as much as we possibly could."
The primary perpetrator for Los Angeles on Sunday night was Tommy Edman. Historians of the Mets will nod here: The harshest October moments for this franchise tend not to involve stars. No, the Mets' playoff trauma is inflicted by names like Sojo and Scioscia, Gillaspie and Guillen. Different generations have their own devastating LCS home run from a light-hitting catcher.
Edman attached his name to the list Sunday. The skinny shortstop-turned-cleanup hitter -- an afterthought of an addition at the trade deadline for LA -- delivered the two biggest knocks 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, there was less reflection on the details of this 81st and final defeat of the season than on an adventure of 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 game.
"S -- , man, look where we came from. Look at the journey we've been on," J.D. Martinez said. "This is not something to hang our heads about."
"You have this strange mix of guys that came together, bonded together, experienced so much," said Pete Alonso, on the precipice of free agency. "You can look at every guy in this locker room and they did something to contribute to help get us here."
"The chemistry was very tight. We loved each other and were pushing for one another," Vientos said, the past tense already stinging. "Every day I showed up to the ballpark it was fun."
"We're all brothers in 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 those g-forces more than most. He was booed throughout April. He was feted with MVP chants through September. He inspired The Temptations to sing in Queens by October.
The task does not get easier from here. Alonso is one of 10 players on the NLCS roster in line 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, well, there's always next year.' Because I think you should try and take advantage of the opportunities you have in front of you. And you don't know when the next one is going to come."
"Now we raised the bar," Mendoza said. "This is what we should strive for every year, to be playing deep into October."
And that's the rub. It took 252 days and a menagerie of magical memes to get here. That all resets now.
"I'm just ready for next year," a stone-faced Vientos said. "I'm ready to get back to work."