Mets inch closer to October baseball with thrilling win against the Phillies
Behind a sellout crowd at Citi Field, the Mets won a 6-3 thriller vs the Phillies. Plus, how Mets fans answered the call on Saturday...
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What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets won a thrilling game in front of a sellout crowd on Saturday, beating the Phillies by a 6-3 score (box)
LHP Sean Manaea continued his second half brilliance, allowing three runs on three hits, six strikeouts and no walks over seven innings
LF Brandon Nimmo gave the Mets the lead in the 7th inning with an RBI single dumped into left field
C Francisco Álvarez went 2-for-4 with a home run (11), a double, three RBI and a run scored
SS Luisangel Acuña stayed red hot since his call-up, going 2-for-3 with a home run (3), double, walk and a run scored
RHP Edwin Díaz recorded his third four-out save of the season, retiring all four Phillies batters he faced to end the game
The Mets are now 17-5 over their last 22 games, 11-2 in their last 13 games at Citi Field, 14-5 in September and 28-20 against the NL East, 5-7 against the Phillies, earned their 39th comeback win, are 67-6 when leading after eight innings, 59-18 when scoring at least five runs, and 37-23 since the All-Star Game
Playoff Race 🏁
The Braves, Diamondbacks, and Padres all won their games on Saturday.
As such, the Mets remained two games ahead of Atlanta for the final wild card, a game behind the Diamondbacks for the second wild card, and three games behind the Padres for the top wild card.
There are seven games remaining. They have one against the Phillies tonight, three against the Braves in Atlanta beginning Tuesday night, and then three games against the Brewers in Milwaukee starting Friday night.
Their magic number to clinch against the Braves down to 6. They can clinch a postseason berth as early as Wednesday with a win in Atlanta.
Per FanGraphs, the Mets have a 69.1% chance of making the postseason.
Tiebreakers:
vs. ATL: 5-5
vs. ARI: 4-3 (finished)
vs. SD: 5-2 (finished)
Injury Updates 🏥
SS Francisco Lindor (back tightness) was out of the lineup for the sixth straight game and is considered day-to-day – he is targeting Tuesday as his best-case scenario for returning
RHP Kodai Senga (strained calf) returned to the mound for a rehab appearance in Syracuse, allowing no hits and a walk while striking out two over an inning of work
RHP Paul Blackburn (lower back) is unlikely to return before the end of the regular season. He is now targeting the postseason with hopes he can return out of the bullpen
Who’s Hot 🔥
Jose Iglesias extended his hitting streak to 15 consecutive games after going 2-for-5 with a double and a run scored. He has multiple hits in three straight games and seven of his last night, hitting .414/.443/.535 during this span. Other teams with players with multiple hitting streaks of 15 games or more in 2024: Braves (Ozzie Albies, Marcell Ozuna), Phillies (Alec Bohm, and JT Realmuto)
Francisco Álvarez now has a modest four-game hitting streak but has a double, three home runs and seven RBI during this stretch. His 37 career home runs prior to turning 23 are tied for the second-most among catchers with Iván Rodríguez. Only Johnny Bench (87) had more
Sean Manaea! ⚡️
Over his last 19 starts dating back to June 14th, Sean Manaea has a 2.76 ERA with 123 strikeouts to just 36 walks and 70 hits over 117.1 IP
Completed seven innings for the ninth time this season and for the fifth time in his last eight starts. All nine of his starts of at least seven innings have come since July 2. Are the most such starts in the majors during that time frame
Has pitched 6.2 or more innings in eight straight starts, the longest such streak by a Met since Jacob deGrom (8/17/19 - 9/25/19)
Ranks fifth in the NL among qualifiers in WHIP (1.05) and tied for seventh in strikeouts (183)
Earned his 12th win of the season, matching a career high (Also: 2017 and 2018) and the Mets have won the last eight games started by Manaea
Luisangel Acuña! ⚡️
Went 2-for-3 with a double, homer RBI, run scored and a walk on Saturday - is now hitting .385/.407/1.292 with two doubles, a triple, three home runs and six RBI over his first eight big league games
Via Sarah Langs, is just the third player in franchise history to have at least three home runs in his first seven career games with at least one PA (Also: Mike Jacobs 2005 and Ron Swoboda 1965)
His six extra-base hits are tied with Kazou Matsui for the most in franchise by a player in their first seven career games with at least one plate appearance
Down on the Farm 🌾
OF Drew Gilbert (No. 3 prospect, Triple-A): 1-for-3, HR (10), 3 RBI, 2 BB, 2 runs scored
RHP Blade Tidwell (No. 8 prospect, Triple-A): 6 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 10 K (win)
BOX SCORES
Triple-A SYR
Mets top 30 prospects
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Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (86-69) vs. Phillies (92-63)
Where: Citi Field — Flushing, NY
Starters: RHP Tylor Megill (4-5, 4.08 ERA) vs. RHP Zack Wheeler (16-6, 2.56 ERA)
When: 7:15 PM
Where to Watch: ESPN
The fans answered the call, and the Mets delivered… ✍️
Saturday afternoon was as raucous and electric of a crowd as we’ve seen at Citi Field since the Mets last played October baseball two seasons ago.
44,152 fans filled the stadium yesterday – it was not only the highest attendance for the club this season, but it marked the fifth-largest regular season crowd in Citi Field history.
In their second-to-last home game of the regular season, this crowd was buzzing from the very first pitch as they tried everything in their power to will this team into the postseason.
If you ask me, Mets fans were just as big a part of the story as everything else that happened in Flushing on Saturday.
Between the early home runs from Francisco Álvarez and Luisangel Acuña (who continues to be a shocking revelation), Sean Manaea’s utter brilliance on the mound, a seventh inning rally for three runs and Edwin Díaz slamming the door shut with a four-out save, the roar of the Citi Field faithful was a consistent presence until that 27th and final out was recorded.
The atmosphere was electric, and this Mets team that has been so surprisingly enjoyable to watch over these last four months understood the assignment and rose to the occasion, giving those 44,000+ fans the payoff that they deserved.
This comes just a few days after Brandon Nimmo implored this fan base to come out in droves for the club’s final series of the regular season against the Phillies. And oh man, did Mets fans answer the call in epic proportions.
Days like this don’t come around too often in these parts, and for Mets fans and the team itself, it was something that was incredibly well earned.
This is a fan base that has gone through the motions over the years, with a lot of down moments and any moments of prosperity being short-lived. With the way things came crashing to a halt at the end of what was supposed to be a rewarding 2022 season, it had felt as this was a fan base that had been sleepwalking for the better part of a year before things turned around.
Saturday wasn’t just a moment that the fans deserved, but the team itself, as well.
This is a Mets team that looked dead in the water more times than I could count this year, and it would have been easy for them to pack it in and let things go in a way that would’ve been similar to the 2023 season. When this group met for a team meeting at the end of May, however, they made the cognizant decision that they would not be going down without a fight.
As the team slowly began to play better and improve their record, we watched their steady climb up the National League standings in June and early July. Not only was their hot play enough to capture the attention of this fan base, but more importantly it was enough for this front office – which likely expected to be selling this summer – to change their minds and invest in this group of guys by adding a few extra pieces to the roster.
Since May 30, the Mets are a major league best 64-36, and in the process have gone from a dead and buried team to one that has a better shot than not to make it into the postseason with just seven games to go.
At one point this season, New York trailed the Atlanta Braves by 10 games in the standings. Now, entering the season’s final week, they have a two game lead over those same Braves and have a chance to bury them for good in the next few days.
Before that can happen, though, the Mets will play one more game at Citi Field tonight — their final regular season game at home this season. But there is hope that it will not truly be their last…
“It’s not gonna be the last game here,” manager Carlos Mendoza said after Saturday’s win. “We’re planning on playing more games here this year.”
Ya gotta love it. Ya gotta believe.
Around the League 🚩
The Braves got homers from Matt Olson, Gio Urshela and Jorge Soler in their 6-2 win over the Marlins
Dbacks RHP Merrill Kelly pitched five shutout innings before exiting the game with a cramp in Arizona’s 5-0 win vs the Brewers
The Padres got three homers as they beat the White Sox for the second straight night to inch closer to a playoff berth
The White Sox now have 119 losses this season, one shy of tying the 1962 Mets for the worst single-season record in the modern era
Thank you for the early morning report!
Who could have thought Acuna would actually outperform what Lindor most likely would have done in the games he’s played. That’s the kind of stuff that creates a magical season! Let’s go!