With champagne flying around him that celebrated the present and teary eyes that hinted at the past, Brandon Nimmo was asked about the future.
Where will Game 1 of the NLCS be?
“We don’t care. It doesn’t matter,” Nimmo said after the Mets moved past the Phillies and now await the Dodgers or Padres. “Whoever wins that series, it’s not going to be easy. And none of this is — this series wasn’t easy. The Brewers series wasn’t easy. That’s what postseason’s all about.”
Things broke right for the Mets on Wednesday, not just because they eliminated the Phillies in four games but because the Dodgers assured their own division series would reach a fifth.
In Game 4, Los Angeles used eight bullpen arms to shut down the Padres, setting up a winner-moves-on Game 5 on Friday that likely will pit Yu Darvish against a top Dodgers arm — either Yoshinobu Yamamoto or Jack Flaherty — which would mean the Mets would not see one of the winner’s stud starters until probably Game 3 of the NLCS.
“We’re going to California,” Steve Cohen said, accurately.
The Mets will be rooting for a lengthy and draining knockout game in which every best arm is used two days before the NLCS begins Sunday.
Either way, a lefty bat like Jesse Winker — and potentially Jeff McNeil — should be ready for two teams that have used a combined zero lefty starting pitchers in October.
Beyond that, for whom should the Mets be rooting?
There is not an easy answer, but let’s break down the cases:
Why they should want the Padres:
Revenge
Within the Mets hellscape that has been Atlanta, they conquered demons.
They went to Milwaukee and took a jab at David Stearns’ past before facing off against the hated Phillies and knocking off the division rival.
Maybe this revenge tour can include some San Diego vengeance.
Two years ago, it was Darvish who dominated the Mets in Game 1 of the wild-card series before a shiny-eared Joe Musgrove, who passed the foreign-substance inspection that Buck Showalter requested, delivered seven scoreless, one-hit innings in the Game 3 clincher.
Musgrove is out after Tommy John surgery, but Darvish and Manny Machado are big parts of this year’s club.
Matchup reasons
The Padres crush righty pitching (a regular-season .764 OPS) but have struggled against southpaws (.690).
Lefty magician Luis Arraez is a .333 hitter against righties and .271 hitter against lefties.
Jackson Merrill has proven plenty in a terrific rookie season, but has not proven he can handle lefties.
Righty Xander Bogaerts strangely could not figure out lefties this season.
These are trends that should interest Sean Manaea, Jose Quintana and David Peterson.
Because they don’t have Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman
Sure, they instead boast Arraez, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jurickson Profar, Machado and Merrill, but the heart of the Dodgers’ lineup is among the best the sport has ever seen.
Even with a banged-up Freeman, Dave Roberts’ group has hit everyone — lefties and righties — and no one has solved Ohtani.
If the Mets walk Ohtani, like they often did with Bryce Harper, he could then exploit their issue of holding runners on base.
Why they should want the Dodgers
Because the Dodgers are playing on empty
The Mets won just two of six games against the Dodgers this season, but those four losses were started by Tyler Glasnow (twice, who is likely out for the season), James Paxton (who is gone) and Gavin Stone (likely out for the season).
The club’s rotation has been decimated, the last standing being Yamamoto, Flaherty, a Walker Buehler who has been a shell of himself and perhaps rookie Landon Knack.
A bullpen game rescued them Wednesday.
Follow The Post’s coverage of the Mets in the postseason:
- Mets overcome arch rival Phillies to advance to NLCS as Lindor hits game-winning grand slam
- Francisco Lindor lights Citi Field on fire with wild go-ahead Mets grand slam
- Brandon Nimmo waited over a decade for this special Mets clincher
- Mets not a better team than us: Phillies’ Nick Castellanos
The lineup is lethal but limping
Freeman’s ankle injury is severe enough that he could not play in a do-or-die Game 4.
Shortstop Miguel Rojas tried to play through a torn adductor muscle in Game 3 and was pulled in the third inning.
All-Star catcher Will Smith has one hit in the postseason and posted a .626 OPS in the second half.
The Dodgers’ lineup is intimidating, but especially without Freeman, it can be navigated easier than early in the season.
Because late magic has fueled so much of this Mets run, and that would be hard to come by against the Padres
San Diego’s rotation is excellent, but its bullpen even more so.
Can the Mets turn Robert Suarez (2.77 ERA this year), Jeremiah Estrada (2.95), Jason Adam (1.95) and Tanner Scott (1.75) into the same piñatas that Jeff Hoffman, Matt Strahm and Jose Ruiz became in the NLDS?
“We like our chances against anybody,” Nimmo said. “We’ve been playing really good baseball for four months.”