While the New York Mets are focused on securing one of the National League’s three wild-card playoff spots, they would like to avoid seeing the Philadelphia Phillies clinch the division title in front of them.
Coming off a pair of impressive performances at the plate, the Mets (84-68) will attempt to win a fourth straight game on Thursday night when they host the Phillies (91-61) in the opener of a four-game series.
New York dropped two of three last weekend in Philadelphia, losing both games in the late innings after opening the series with an 11-3 rout. The Mets bounced back with a three-game sweep of the visiting Washington Nationals and are coming off a 10-0 win Wednesday in which they scored nine runs in the fourth inning.
Brandon Nimmo highlighted the big inning by hitting a three-run homer after scoring on Tyrone Taylor’s RBI double in the fourth.
The nine-run inning helped the Mets move within seven games of the NL East-leading Phillies, and if the Mets can win the next four, the deficit will be three entering the final six games of the season. More importantly, the Mets maintained a two-game lead over the Atlanta Braves for the third wild-card, stayed tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks for the second spot, and remained 2 1/2 games behind the San Diego Padres for the first wild-card berth.
“We’ll be ready,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “I think we’ve been showing it for quite a bit now, and we don’t want to look too far ahead. We’ve got the Phillies coming to town; they’re really good. We just saw them. We’re good too, and the guys will be up for the challenge.”
Rookie Luisangel Acuna has started at shortstop the past two games and likely will be there again if Francisco Lindor misses a fourth straight game with a lower back injury.
The Phillies, who have held the division lead since May 3, have a magic number of one to clinch their third straight playoff spot and a magic number of four to secure their first division title since 2011. Philadelphia is 12-5 in its past 17 games, but it dropped two of three at Milwaukee — including Wednesday’s 2-1 loss.
Alec Bohm homered in the second inning, but the Phillies struck out 16 times for the second straight game. They finished with 40 strikeouts in the series and were 3-for-23 with runners in scoring position.
“I don’t think it’s anything to freak out about,” Bohm said. “Obviously, we could put the ball in play a little more, but we’re going up against a pretty good pitching staff over there.”
Right-hander Luis Severino (10-6, 3.77 ERA), who is 3-0 with a 1.86 ERA in his past six starts, will open the series for the Mets. Severino took a second straight no-decision on Saturday in Philadelphia after allowing three runs on three hits in six innings. The Mets lost 6-4.
Severino is 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA in two career starts against the Phillies, who homered twice off him Saturday.
Taijuan Walker (3-6, 6.29 ERA) will return to the Philadelphia rotation after allowing three hits over three scoreless innings against the Mets on Saturday in his third relief appearance.
The right-hander last started Aug. 28 in a 10-0 loss to the Houston Astros and allowed six runs on 13 hits in six innings. Since his last victory on May 11, Walker is 0-6 with a 6.75 ERA in his last 14 outings.
Walker is 1-3 with a 3.18 ERA in nine appearances (eight starts) against New York.
–Field Level Media
