The Mets' magical ability to bounce back gives them a chance in Game 6

LOS ANGELES – After the Mets' potentially devastating 10-2 loss in Game 4 resulted in three debacles in four games and left the Queens team on the precipice of elimination, Mets players met to assess their unenviable situation. Things looked bleak – although this team, full of heart, is doing better than almost anyone ever has.

These very Mets were told from the start that they were a team in transition. But here they have a real chance against the best that money can build.

They started the season as if they were never going to win a game, delaying rookie manager Carlos Mendoza's first win almost as early as Week 2. But they got out of that hole in week 3.

They fell 11 games under .500 but became the eighth team ever to make the playoffs from that depth.

They fell behind by multiple runs several times in Game #161 on a day they had to win a game at their personal horror house in Atlanta, but pulled it off with the first biggest home run in Mets history. (Thanks Frankie!)

They once again fell behind by several runs in the ninth inning against one of the game's best closers in a winner-take-all wild card game, but saved their season with the latest biggest home run in Mets history. (Thanks Pete!)

But even in a dismal season, trailing by three games to one against the Ohtani Dodgers in the NLCS is a mountain you don't want to climb. A weaker team might have bowed to Ohtani and Co. But not in front of these Mets. They met to talk about it. And they responded with a big 12-6 win in Game 5 that no one expected (a 12-6 curveball, if you will, if there ever was one).

“We were all on the same page,” Pete Alonso said after the Mets bounced back with authority in Game 5 to continue their season-long trend.

“For example, after (Thursday's loss), we just had a conversation together where we were like, 'Hey, this is it,'” Alonso continued. “This is us. This is the situation we find ourselves in and let’s continue to disclose everything.”

Follow the Post's coverage of the Mets in the postseason:

This is us.

That is the slogan of this remarkable and unexpected season. That's them.

Not only did the Mets slugger deliver the game-setting, season-saving three-run home run — a ball hit 432 feet over the tips of his shoes toward The Apple, as Jesse Winker noted — he also summed up a year in which resilience continues to erase reality.

They are the champions of the intangible.

That's the Magic team, lowercase m. (That's a distinction from legendary Dodgers partner Magic Johnson, who attended every game at Citi Field.) Imagine the Dodgers' superstar athletes extending even to the box the owner. This is an adversarial organization created by winners to win.

If you name them, the Dodgers may never lose a game. The Mets are certainly still in a very difficult situation as they have to travel to LA and win two games in a row against a club that appears to have spent their $300 million much better.

But these Mets are enjoying the end of the world. And these Mets offer some real advantages.

Alonso did not reveal what else was said between each other. But that's no secret. The Dodgers' current roster, as star-studded as it gets in baseball, has shrunk significantly.

Freddie Freeman plays on one leg and looks like this. But it's the lack of pitching. Their injury list of rotational brackets and stars is a terrible challenge to traverse.

That the Dodgers somehow set a record for consecutive scoreless innings in the postseason with 33 consecutive innings is their own L.A. miracle. With Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Gavin Stone, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin and Bobby Miller in sickbay or crisis town and no other choice, the Dodgers have put together a very beatable pitching plan for Games 6 and 7.

The Dodgers will host a bullpen game on Sunday, and we saw how that worked out last time. The Dodgers have the best and most rested bullpen, but it's too bad for them that their great trio of Evan Phillips, Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen can't each pitch three innings. Bullpen games are a last resort, even for the cute and smart.

Meanwhile, the Mets send Sean Manaea to the mound, a new ace who has taken a page from the book of Chris Sale, who happens to be the one who beat the Dodgers for Boston to win the 2018 World Series at Dodger Stadium.

Manaea has already addressed all the criticisms of him – that he couldn't beat Philly in October (33.75 ERA starting), that he couldn't beat LA (7.09 lifetime ERA compared to them) and that he generally stunk is postseason (15 ERA coming in, yes, 15).

“A formidable opponent (Sunday),” one Dodgers player lamented honestly.

Then LA will face Walker Buehler in a potentially pivotal Game 7, and too bad for them this isn't 2019 anymore.

Yes, actually, the Mets have some honest advantages. Of course, the magic and mojo are probably still with them when needed.

That's what they are after all.