CINCINNATI — After nine years of going crazy, Mets fans finally can go crazy.
The idea of a first-place finish, which seemed like such a pipe dream for the Mets when the season began, became a reality at 7:08 p.m. on Saturday when Jeurys Familia struck out Jay Bruce to start the on-field celebration.
In honor of the late Yogi Berra, it’s over.
The Mets beat the Reds 10-2 at Great American Ball Park to win the NL East title and end a nine-year playoff drought.
Only fittingly, David Wright — the only holdover from the 2006 playoff team — sealed it with a three-run homer in the ninth.
But as one season concludes, another is just beginning for the Mets, who last won a World Series in 1986.
“Only one team goes home happy every year — I know that from experience,” said general manager Sandy Alderson, who watched the final out from a suite with team COO Jeff Wilpon.
Left in the dust were the Nationals, who are 8 ½ games removed from first place after a turbulent summer in which the team never came close to fulfilling lofty spring-training expectations.
“It’s worth all the time, all the effort, all the press conferences, all the things you do,” said Terry Collins, who will be taking a team to the playoffs for the first time in his 11-year managerial career. “This is the culmination of it all. Right now we’ve got to get home field advantage, that is next.”
The division title is the sixth in franchise history and first since 2006 — the Mets were also crowned NL East champions in 1969, ’73, ’86 and ’88.
“I think I took [2006] for granted — I’m not going to take this for granted,” said Wright, who spent four months on the disabled list, much of it recovering from spinal stenosis.
In a surprise move, Matt Harvey was allowed to pitch 6 ²/₃ innings, after telling Collins earlier in the week he wanted to make a regular start, workload limitations be damned.
“We knew we wanted to win this game, we didn’t want to wait until [Sunday],” said Harvey, who allowed two earned runs on nine hits over 97 pitches. “This game was probably the most important game of the year.”
Harvey, who will make one additional regular season start, has logged 183 ¹/₃ innings. Earlier this month, the pitcher’s agent, Scott Boras, voiced concern over the possibility Harvey would be allowed to surpass 180 innings, including postseason.
Harvey’s latest performance likely will silence much of the debate over his usage in recent weeks. Harvey pitched five shutout innings against the Yankees and was strong against the Reds, save for the second inning, when he allowed four hits and two runs.
Still unclear is what limitations, if any, Harvey will face in the postseason.
Yoenis Cespedes, who arrived in a July 31 trade with the Tigers and has been the team’s MVP since then, is already looking ahead.
“We are real happy here, I’m very happy,” Cespedes said. “This is just the first step in a year’s full of hard work.”
Next on the agenda is fighting for home field advantage in the NL Division Series, against the Dodgers (who led the race by percentage points entering Saturday night). The series will be a rematch of the 2006 NLDS, which the Mets swept.
But this time the Dodgers have elite starting pitchers in Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, both of whom are contenders for the NL Cy Young award.
For now, the Mets will bask in the glow of a division title.
“Fred and Saul are very happy,” Wilpon said, referring to team owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz. “This is step one, so let’s keep it going. I can’t say anything more about the guys in this room. This is great.”
Lucas Duda’s first-inning grand slam against lefty John Lamb provided all the run support Harvey needed. Curtis Granderson hit a solo homer in the second and Wright unloaded in the ninth for his fifth homer.
“We deserve this, the fans deserve it, the City of New York deserves it,” Wright said. “I’m glad we could deliver for them.”