This story was excerpted from Anthony DiComo’s Mets Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

As far as vengeance goes, this wasn’t an even swap. When the Mets lost a best-of-three Wild Card Series to the Padres last October, eight months of progress unraveled during a three-day stretch at Citi Field. The Mets mourned their 101-win season and vowed to remember the lessons from how it ended. Then they did their best to discard the rest of it.

“Being knocked out last year, yeah, it stung,” first baseman Pete Alonso said. “But it’s a new season. We just need to focus on winning today.”

When the Mets did so on Monday, taking a 5-0 series opener from the Padres at Citi Field, they tried not to focus on the idea of exorcising demons.

“It wasn’t a topic [of conversation],” manager Buck Showalter said. “We knew they were a really good team. … It may have been in the backs of some people’s minds, but I didn’t hear it as a topic of conversation in advance meetings today.”

The Mets didn’t need to focus too much on the Padres because they’ve already spent the better part of six months meditating on how last season ended.

Over the winter, general manager Billy Eppler schemed up ways to guard against similar disappointment, knowing much will depend upon the health of co-aces Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander. Owner Steve Cohen spent money with impunity. Position players hit the cage, hoping to find ways to generate more power against some of the game’s top starting pitchers.

One regular-season win won’t change what happened last October, and the Mets know that. But they also understand the importance of proving they can beat the Padres, a team that bested them six times in nine games last season, including the playoffs. San Diego is one of the few clubs in baseball willing to spend (almost) as lavishly as the Mets. They again rank among the early favorites to make a run at the pennant.

“They’re a really good team,” Jeff McNeil said. “We’ll probably run into them again, maybe in the postseason. We’ll see.”

So consider this week’s series against San Diego business as usual … with a twist. Even sweeping the Padres won’t undo the ache of last October, but a series win can at least point the Mets in the right direction as they seek a different outcome this time around.