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2028 World Series Recap: Mets Outlast Orioles in Six, Turning Heavyweight October Into a Queens Celebration

The bracket spent all month trying to get strange.

The Yankees pushed the Orioles. The White Sox barged into the ALCS as an 80-82 division winner. The Cubs knocked out the Dodgers. The Reds took the Mets all the way to Game 7 in the NLCS.

But when the World Series finally arrived, October gave baseball the matchup it had been building toward from the start: Baltimore against New York. Powerhouse against machine. The American League’s 106-win monster against the National League’s 103-win run-prevention giant. The prior postseason coverage had framed Orioles-Mets as the cleanest possible ending, and when it finally arrived, the series carried every bit of that weight.

Then the Mets took the heavyweight fight and made it theirs.

New York beat Baltimore in six games, winning the final three after falling behind 2-1, and closed the series with a 7-6 victory that felt like a perfect final snapshot of this Mets team. They pitched when they had to. They absorbed Baltimore’s power. They found just enough answers from their stars. And when the final out landed, the Mets were World Series champions for the third time in franchise history.

Francisco Lindor was named World Series MVP, and fittingly, he was right in the middle of the clincher. Lindor went 3-for-5 with a home run, two RBIs and two runs scored in Game 6, while Juan Soto went 2-for-4 with a homer, two RBIs and a walk. The Mets needed every bit of it, because Baltimore did not go quietly. Jackson Holliday went 3-for-4 with a home run, two RBIs and three walks in the loss, turning the final game into one last reminder of how dangerous the Orioles had been all season.

But the Mets had the final answer.

New York won Game 6, 7-6, finished the series 4-2 and turned a matchup that opened with Baltimore looking dominant into a championship run defined by resilience.

Baltimore landed the first punch, and it was a big one. The Orioles opened the World Series with an 8-0 win, backed by a brilliant Kyle Bradish start. Bradish threw seven shutout innings, allowing two hits with five strikeouts, while Coby Mayo drove in four runs and Colton Cowser and Mayo both homered. It looked, for one night, like Baltimore might bully the series into its preferred shape.

The Mets answered immediately.

Game 2 was New York’s first sign of life and maybe the first sign that this series would not be dictated by the Orioles’ lineup depth alone. The Mets won 8-5 behind a huge night from Soto, who reached base five times, and Carson Benge, who went 2-for-5 with a triple, a home run and two RBIs. Baltimore got a loud counter from Gunnar Henderson, who homered and drove in four, but the Mets had evened the series before it shifted to New York.

Baltimore still grabbed control in Game 3. The Orioles won 4-2 behind Trey Gibson’s six strong innings and another Jordan Westburg homer. At that point, the series had tilted back toward the American League champions. Baltimore led 2-1, had already shut the Mets out once, and had won two of the first three games.

Then New York changed the entire series.

Game 4 was the turn. The Mets won 4-0, with Jack Leiter striking out nine over 4.1 scoreless innings and the bullpen finishing the shutout. Lindor went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a walk, and New York took the kind of controlled, pitching-led game that had defined its season.

Game 5 was the squeeze. The Mets won 3-2, with David Peterson delivering 6.1 innings of two-run ball after getting hit hard in Game 1. Baltimore’s offense came almost entirely through Westburg, who homered twice and drove in both Orioles runs. But Francisco Alvarez homered for New York, the Mets pieced together enough offense, and Bryan King finished it off for the save. Suddenly, the Mets were one win away.

Game 6 became the coronation, but not before Baltimore made it tense.

The Orioles scored six runs, hit back, and forced New York to protect a one-run lead with the season on the line. Holliday did everything he could to extend Baltimore’s year. Westburg had been a force throughout the series. Henderson had his moments. The Orioles did not vanish. They were simply beaten by a Mets team that had spent the entire month proving it could survive different kinds of pressure.

That was the story of New York’s October. The Mets swept a Cardinals team built around pitching and defense. They survived Cincinnati’s power in a seven-game NLCS. Then they beat Baltimore, a club with the deepest American League profile, by winning three straight games after falling behind in the series.

The Mets were not just a hot team. They were a complete one.

Soto gave them superstar presence. Lindor gave them the October heartbeat. Benge, Alvarez, Jake Meyers and James Outman gave them length. The pitching staff gave them structure. The bullpen gave them a finish line. And when the World Series demanded that the Mets win in multiple ways — a slugfest, a shutout, a one-run game, a clincher under pressure — they had answers.

For Baltimore, the ending will sting because this was a championship-caliber team. The Orioles won 106 games, entered the World Series with home-field advantage, and looked like the best team in baseball for long stretches of the season. They had already survived the Yankees and ended Chicago’s chaos run. They opened the World Series with an 8-0 statement and led the series 2-1.

Then the Mets took the next three.

That is the cruelty of October. A team can be great for six months, great for two rounds, great for half a World Series — and still watch someone else celebrate.

The Orioles were the powerhouse.

The Mets were the machine.

And in the end, the machine kept running.