The Mets have two straight punch-back victories over the team they’re chasing, so they should have some license to dream right now. Why not? The tenacity they’ve shown in beating the Phillies offers compelling evidence that they can make some October noise, should they continue to exhibit this kind of grit.
Of course, they’ve got some things to clean up before fall foliage goes orange, too, and their 6-5, walk-off victory over Philadelphia on Tuesday at Citi Field offered reminders of that, along with the on-field celebration after Brandon Nimmo’s clutch winning hit.
First, the good.
The Mets’ offense is cooking. After all the hand-wringing over their failures with runners in scoring position throughout much of the season, they are getting big hits with runners on thanks to patient approaches and the in-game adjustments that Carlos Mendoza recently branded necessary. The Mets were 5-for-10 in those situations Tuesday in downing the Phils and are batting .358 with RISP in August, tops in the majors.
That helped them overcome a 2-0 deficit and also to fight through blowing a 5-2 lead. They scored the winner off Philly closer Jhoan Duran because, as Nimmo said, Starling Marte, Pete Alonso and Brett Baty, who hit consecutive singles to load the bases, had had such remarkable at-bats.
“We won the game because of their at-bats,” Nimmo stressed.
And thanks to Edwin Diaz, who got five outs. He came in when Ryan Helsley blew the lead in the eighth inning and struck out two to end the inning. He fanned two more in a perfect ninth, setting up the Mets’ ninth. “He was pretty nasty again,” Mendoza said.
The end result meant the good vibes kept percolating. There was a sense of sweet anticipation early in the day when the club announced that touted pitching prospect Jonah Tong was coming up to start on Friday and that slugging catcher Francisco Alvarez was headed for a rehab assignment.
Now the bad.
The Mets got another short start from Sean Manaea, who was charged with two runs in 4.2 innings. He left after 90 pitches, one shy of his season high, when the game was scoreless, though the Phillies had two runners on. Gregory Soto allowed both inherited runners to score.
Maybe there was an argument to be made to leave Manaea in to face lefties Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper – Manaea and Soto are both lefties, after all. But Mendoza seemed concerned about the pitch count and David Stearns had said before the game that he wondered if Manaea’s recent struggles are tied to him still building up stamina.
Whatever the cause, Manaea has a 7.12 ERA in his five August starts; he had a 2.08 ERA in his first four starts back from the IL in July. The Mets must fix Manaea, a key cog in last year’s run to the NLCS.
“I feel like I’m getting in good counts, just not putting guys away,” Manaea said. “I don’t know if it’s a mixing issue..Just taking a very long time to put guys away. So, yeah, I don’t really know what the fix is, but hopefully, figure it out.”
Mendoza, though, doesn’t think Manaea is that far off. He did get 19 swings and misses on the night and struck out eight, which at least demonstrates some effectiveness. “I really like what I saw, especially with the way he was using all three pitches – the fastball, the sweeper and the change,” Mendoza said.
“I thought, overall, it’s probably one of the best outings we’ve seen from him.”
Still, he’s got to deliver more innings. And Manaea knows it.
The Mets must fix Helsley, too. He gave up a two-run homer to ex-Met/current Met-killer Harrison Bader in the eighth inning, which tied the score at five. That meant Helsley’s ERA as a Met has ballooned to 10.38 ERA in 8.2 innings.
Mendoza was not specific, but he certainly seemed to be getting at something when talking about Helsley after the game. Could the Mets believe he’s tipping his pitches?
“We’ve got to get Hels right,” Mendoza said. “He’s got too good of stuff for them to be taking some really good swings on fastballs, really good takes on the slider. So we got to look back and see what we’re missing. For teams to have comfortable at-bats like that, something’s going on there that we have to figure out.”
Overall, though, the night ended well. The Mets trail the Phillies by only five games in the NL East race. It’s definitely not over, and these wins the last two nights reinforced that, especially since they are trying for a sweep Wednesday and have four games in Philadelphia in September.
Hard things like stealing the division could be doable for a team with this kind of moxie. We’ll see.
“For me, personally, it’s the most talented team I’ve ever played on,” Nimmo said.
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