The Mets are going to the playoffs for the second consecutive season, as they edged the Phillies, 5-3, Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia. It’s just the second time in franchise history the club has made the postseason in back-to-back years, joining the 1999-2000 club. Today’s win means the Mets will host the Wild Card game on Wednesday.
- The game was picked up by Fox. Fortunately we got John Smoltz and not Joe Buck. Smoltz did not have a particularly good game but he made one excellent call. With the game tied at 2-2, the Mets had a runner on second and there was a 3-1 count to James Loney. Smoltz said that they should walk Loney at this point. The Phillies pitched to him and Loney hit a 2-run homer for the game winner.
- Curtis Granderson continued his strong hitting. He came into the game with a 1.100 OPS in his last 120 PA. In this game, he went 3-4 with a double and two runs scored.
- Granderson has been great and Asdrubal Cabrera has been nearly as good. Since returning from the DL, Cabrera has a .343/.404/.643 line in 159 PA coming into today. On Saturday, Cabrera went 2-4 with a walk and an RBI.
- Ryan Howard may have a giant fork sticking out of his back but he gave one last reminder of how productive he’s been against the Mets in his career, as he belted a two-run homer against Bartolo Colon to tie the game at 2-2. It was his 48th lifetime HR against the Mets, tying Willie McCovey for the fourth-most ever against the club. The only guys with more are Mike Schmidt and Chipper Jones with 49 and Willie Stargell with 60.
- The Mets notched their 18th win in September, their most of any month this season. Combined with a 9-2 run to end August, the Mets are 27-12 in their last 39 games.
. . . and working overtime!
Very satisfying ! The perseverance through all the injuries and the never quit attitude of the team has made this a very memorable season.
Let’s go Mets! Proud of this team and proud to be a fan. My post season expectations are low but I’d love to be surprised.
“AmazingAmazingAmazingAmazingAmazing………..”
Casey Stengel
Months ago I advocated for benching deGrom and Matz to be shut down and have the surgeries they needed. In the end, that happened, but not as I envisioned it. I advocated for the arrival of young talent to see if it was really at the level of the MLB, and that occurred in desperation. And I advocated for selling off decent parts, like Walker, to make that happen, but it came with injury. I just find it amazing to believe that this team, even with the soft Sept schedule managed to take all that to the WC game. I never imagined tat aspect with the team we presently have. Nevertheless, here we are…its truely Amazin’
FWIW, Gsellman is now at 160 IP, and +20 from his high, a real run would add, what, another 20-25…I guess that no longer matters.
Good point about Gsellman’s work load.
I don’t think there’s anything magical about the club’s self-imposed innings increase limit. But even if there was, there really are no alternatives right now to using Gsellman. In my mind, he’s the club’s second-best starter right now.