NEW YORK — Friday evening at Citi Field began with The Temptations singing their 1965 hit single “My Girl” in an ode to Francisco Lindor’s walk-up song. Lindor, while warming up on the field, smiled and sang along to the lyrics. Pete Alonso, stretching before what could be his final home game as a Met, joined in, too, and pretty soon the crowd — understandably tense before an elimination game — relaxed a little. Watching the jovial scene unfold in Queens, it was hard to tell that the Mets were backed into a corner. 

If they seemed loose and carefree mere minutes before southpaw David Peterson threw the first pitch of the game, it was because that’s how they showed up to Citi Field ahead of Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza walked into the hitters’ meeting and everyone was smiling. Hours before their most important game of the year — yes, another one of those — New York’s happy-go-lucky attitude foreshadowed the pain they would inflict on the Dodgers.

“That’s who we are,” Mendoza said. “There’s no tomorrow for us. But we’ve been in this situation before. So, nothing new.”

After Peterson stranded Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani on second and third base in the first inning — lifting the crowd’s energy from unease to optimism — Alonso followed by lifting a three-run blast off Jack Flaherty in the bottom of the frame. The Polar Bear’s fourth home run of October was a harbinger of the offensive outburst that was to come. The Mets tallied 14 hits, the second-most in postseason franchise history, in their 12-6 win over the Dodgers in Game 5. 

The onslaught was a product of sticking to the plan, capitalizing on Flaherty’s drop in velocity and refusing to chase outside the zone. The Mets wound up tagging Flaherty for eight runs in just three innings. Besides Alonso’s long ball, they drew key walks, enjoyed timely hitting, and played small ball to overwhelm Los Angeles’ pitching staff. Starling Marte went 4-for-5 with three RBIs, Lindor collected a stand-up RBI triple, Jesse Winker reached base in four of his five plate appearances and catcher Francisco Alvarez went 3-for-4, too. On top of all the runs produced, the Mets didn’t strike out once.

It was the kind of complete effort the Mets needed to remind themselves of their ceiling. 

“The quality of at-bats that we had, the intensity that we needed every inning, we understood that,” Lindor said. “And we had to give everything that we had, and that’s what we did.”

As the Dodgers threatened to put an end to this improbable run, the Mets leaned on the experience and the results that got them to this point. Their slugging first baseman, throughout these past few victorious weeks, has been right in the middle of it. Of Alonso’s five career postseason homers, four have given the Mets the lead — including three in the past two weeks alone. Not bad for one of baseball’s most powerful hitters just weeks away from entering free agency. 

Like Mookie Betts said on Wednesday, the Mets didn’t become one of the final four teams standing because of luck. They also didn’t reach this point because of a McDonald’s mascot or a hit Latin pop song. On Friday, the Mets reminded everyone why they’re only two wins away from advancing to the World Series: When they’re at their best, they can beat anyone. 

“We’ll be ready. We love opportunities,” Alonso said. “This is what we want to continue to play for. Today was all about, figure it out, get to Game 6. And we have that opportunity, and it’s going to be the same mentality: figure it out, get to 7. That’s what it is. Survive the day. And we did. And we’re really, really excited for the opportunity coming up.”

In a season overloaded with surprises, the Mets have the opportunity to pull off their greatest upset yet. They forced a flight back to Los Angeles for Game 6, which will take place on Sunday night at Chavez Ravine, by focusing only on the 27 outs that could save their season rather than getting overwhelmed by the big picture. All baseball teams like to say they don’t look too far ahead, and instead prefer to take things day-to-day, but Mendoza’s Mets have executed that mindset better than most this season.

The Mets are attempting to become the ninth team in LCS history (AL or NL) to come back from a 3-1 hole. For motivation, they’ll be reminding themselves that they’re 2-0 in elimination games this year. 

“We’ve had success focusing on the process for 4-5 months now, and it’s not the time to change it,” Brandon Nimmo said. “We’re just trying to beat on that dam until it finally breaks, and it broke tonight.”

On The Temptations’ official website, the Motown legends bill their story as “an epic journey of courage, struggle, triumphs, setbacks, and ultimately, international superstardom.” 

Sounds a lot like the 2024 Mets.

Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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MMA Fighting has PFL Battle of the Giants results for the Ngannou vs. Ferreira fight card, live blogs of the top three fights, and more from The Mayadeen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday afternoon.

In the main event, former UFC champion Francis Ngannou and Renan Ferreira will sqaure off the PFL Superfight heavyweight championship. Ngannou will make his PFL debut at the event after he suffered two losses in a row in boxing.

Larissa Pacheco and Cris Cyborg will compete for the PFL Superfight bantamweight championship in the co-main event.

Bellator middleweight champion Johnny Eblen will defend his title against Fabian Edwards also on the main card.

Check out PFL Battle of the Giants results below.

Main card (ESPN+ PPV at 4 p.m. ET)

Francis Ngannou vs. Renan Ferreira

Cris Cyborg vs. Larissa Pacheco

Johnny Eblen vs. Fabian Edwards

Husein Kadimagomaev vs. Zafar Mohsen

A.J. McKee vs. Paul Hughes

Prelims (ESPN+ at 1:30 p.m. ET)

Raufeon Stots vs. Marcos Breno

Dedrek Sanders vs. Makkasharip Zaynukov

Ibragim Ibragimov vs. Nacho Campos

Tariq Ismail vs. Taha Bendaoud

Describing himself as “a square peg in a round hole,” a tearful Tony Bennett said Friday he suddenly retired from coaching at Virginia because he wasn’t suited to navigate the current landscape of college basketball.

Bennett — dressed in his signature suit-minus-tie look — told those gathered at his exit news conference that name, image and likeness money and the transfer portal have brought elements to the job that he’s “not great at.”

“I looked at myself and I realized, I’m no longer the best coach to lead this program,” Bennett said with athletic director Carla Williams seated next to him. “If you’re going to do it, you’ve got to be all in. You’ve got to have everything. And if you do it half-hearted, it’s not fair to the university and those young men. That’s what made me step down.”

Bennett led Virginia to the 2019 national championship a year after the Cavaliers became the first No. 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

He is the latest — and, at 55 years old, the youngest — high-profile coach to walk away citing a measure of burnout with the modern realities of the profession. That list includes former Villanova coach Jay Wright, who retired two years ago at 60.

“The game and college athletics is not in a healthy spot,” Bennett said. “And there needs to be change. I think I was equipped to do the job here the old way. That’s who I am and that’s how it was. My staff has buoyed me along to get to this point, but there needs to be change.”

[AP Top 25: Kansas gets No. 1 nod ahead of Alabama, UConn in preseason poll]

Former assistant Ron Sanchez, who rejoined the program last season, will take over as interim coach. Williams said a national search for Bennett’s replacement will begin shortly, but Bennett is hopeful Sanchez will perform well enough to land the full-time post.

Williams said Bennett told her of his decision on Wednesday morning, though she noted that the two had discussed the possibility at times over the past three years.

“I believe he is equipped to do the job, but as he said to all of you, he has to have his whole heart in it,” Williams said, her cheeks still stained with tears shed during Bennett’s remarks. “He is the embodiment of humility, because he could keep doing this and not have his heart in it, but it takes more courage to say, ‘I’m not the person for it.’”

As for the stunning timing of his retirement, less than three weeks before the team’s Nov. 6 opener against Campbell, Bennett said he thought seriously about stepping away immediately after the past season concluded with a First Four loss to Colorado State in Dayton, Ohio.

The Cavaliers struggled offensively in that game and haven’t won an NCAA Tournament game since the 2019 title matchup.

But, because the current recruiting calendar required him to immediately go to work evaluating potential transfers, Bennett said he never fully took the time to consider his situation.

He said he was excited about the players the program signed, about the new offense he was installing and about the prospects for the upcoming season. He felt, then, sufficiently energized to sign a long-term extension with Virginia, though he acknowledged it was never likely he would’ve lasted the full term of the deal, which ran out in six years.

Then, finally, there was a break in his hectic schedule. He and his wife, Laurel, took a trip during U-Va.’s fall break, giving the couple the chance to process and contemplate the future.

“That’s where I kind of came to the realization that I can’t do this,” Bennett said, becoming overcome by emotion. “It’s not fair to these guys, and to this institution that I love so much, to continue on when you know you’re not the right guy for the job.”

Bennett’s current players and staff stood toward the back of the room Friday, listening as he spoke.

“I’m happy for him,” said former player Isaiah Wilkins, now an assistant coach. “I see he’s at peace. I think he knows himself well and obviously it’s a family decision.”

With the person who hired Bennett, former Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage, looking on, Bennett talked about his pride in the way he and his staff built the Cavaliers into one of the nation’s most successful programs. Littlepage hired Bennett in 2009 following three strong seasons at Washington State.

After a 15-16 record in his first season at Virginia, Bennett went on to post 14 straight winning seasons.

He posted a 364-136 mark at the school, leading the program to two Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament titles, six ACC regular-season championships and 10 NCAA Tournament appearances. Bennett was named ACC Coach of the Year in 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019.

“I didn’t envision, in 15 years, what it would be like,” Littlepage said. “I was thinking more in the short term. ‘We’ve gotta get this thing going and knew that would take a couple of years.’ … He had the pedigree. He had the understanding of the college game. He came to understand the University of Virginia in short order. There was no question he was going to have success.”

Long derided by many in the national media for his unusually slow tempo of play and defense-first — and second and third — mentality, Bennett’s first-round NCAA Tournament loss to UMBC in 2018 gave ample fuel to his critics, creating a chorus questioning whether his pack-line defense was built to win championships.

Bennett, in his signature way, handled the loss with grace and promised his heartbroken players that it would be “a ticket to someplace they couldn’t go without it.”

The following season, after a dramatic run through the NCAA Tournament, Bennett and the Cavaliers cut down the nets in Minneapolis, having topped Texas Tech and claimed the school’s first national title.

“I’ve been here for 15 years as the head coach, and I thought it would be a little longer, to be honest, but that’s been on loan,” Bennett said. “It wasn’t mine to keep. This position has been on loan, and it’s time for me to give it back.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – One of the biggest MMA stars in recent years, Jorge Masvidal, is gearing up for a return to the cage, and American Top Team coach Mike Brown was pleasantly surprised to see how good he looked when he returned to the mats.

Masvidal (35-17 MMA, 12-10 UFC) recently expressed his desire to make a comeback to MMA after retiring last April. He hasn’t been completely removed from combat sports, though. In July, he boxed against the man he fought in the inaugural BMF title fight, Nate Diaz.

Despite spending a majority of the past year focusing on boxing, Brown says Masvidal is already in shape to compete in MMA, and that includes the grind of wrestling, which is typically the most grueling aspect of the sport.

“I was actually surprised when Jorge came back to the gym, how good of shape he was in,” Brown told MMA Junkie. “He was actually in really good shape, and he had obviously been training, and I’m talking wrestling shape. He was jumping right in and wrestling with the best guys.

“He didn’t get out of shape. He’s focused, and he’s ready. He has that itch and wants to do it again. He’s obviously a big star. There’s a lot of matchups that I’m sure people want to see. There’s a lot of fights I would like to see.”

Masvidal called it a career the first time after losing four consecutive fights. He failed to top then-champion Kamaru Usman in back-to-back title fights, lost a Fight of the Night against Colby Covington, and then came up short against Gilbert Burns.

“Gamebred’s” path to a title shot would be long, especially considering how much the welterweight division has changed in such a short period. But that’s fine with Brown, who would rather him take fights against other established stars than up-and-coming contenders.

“I’d like to see him in a more exciting, like a BMF-type fight,” Brown said. “Nothing like (a title contender fight), I don’t know, like a (Justin) Gaethje type of guy. I always like the Diaz brothers, that would be great. Nate for the third time, whatever, you know?

“There’s 20 fights that would probably excite me with Jorge. He’s exciting, man. He’s always fun to watch. He’s the man.”

Masvidal, 39, saw his popularity grow astronomically after his five-second flying knee knockout of Ben Askren in 2019. He followed that up by becoming the winner of the first-ever BMF title fight by stopping Nate Diaz. Although he hit a rough patch of results, Brown is excited to see him get back to action.

“I say it all the time: I think he’s got more weapons than anybody in the sport. He’s got so much technique, so much skill and can do so many different things. He’s fun to watch, and he’s also good on the mic as well.”