NEW YORK — Carlos Mendoza made the point multiple times on Wednesday.
“We haven’t done anything,” the manager said.
No, the Mets haven’t clinched a playoff berth or won a division. But they’re starting to see the light at the end of their long climb out of competitive purgatory from earlier in the season. Wednesday’s 10-0 romp over the Nationals put a stamp on a three-game sweep — by a 22-2 margin.
The Mets are 15-4 in their last 19 games, surging into a tie for the second wild card with Arizona (over whom they own the tiebreaker) and two games clear of Atlanta for a playoff spot.
“The energy was great tonight, but we want even more,” Nimmo said, referring to a crowd of 34,196, up nearly 10,000 from the night before. “We want this place filled up. We’re not in the regular season anymore. We’re in playoff baseball.”
Jose Quintana: “The guy Acuña can play. Wow.”
— Tim Britton (@TimBritton) September 19, 2024
New York welcomes the Phillies to Queens for four games this weekend to close out the home schedule. Philadelphia can clinch the National League East with a split of the four-game series.
“I’m not ready to call it our last homestand,” Mendoza said. “Hopefully there’s a lot of baseball games left in this ballpark this year.”
Wednesday offered plenty of reasons to believe that.
The offense showed more encouraging signs
A week ago, the Mets were an inning away from being no-hit. The offense has woken up considerably since then: They’ve had seven innings in the past eight days in which they’ve scored at least three runs.
The nine-run fourth inning Wednesday was the most explosive in more than three years. It included several encouraging signs. One night after looking close with three long flyouts, Mark Vientos contributed a two-run single in the fourth — and another hit to lead off the fifth. Pete Alonso was in the middle of another run-scoring rally. And Nimmo capped it off with his 20th homer of the season, a three-run blast off former Met Jacob Barnes.
“It points to how deep our lineup is,” Nimmo said. “We’re able to put pressure on them and make the dam break.”
“One through nine, there’s a lot to like,” Mendoza said.
Luisangel Acuña looks right at home
The usually understated Jose Quintana summarized it well on Wednesday night.
“The guy Acuña can play,” Quintana said. “Wow.”
After a season-long struggle in Triple A, Acuña has hit the ground running in the bigs. Acuña had two more run-scoring hits on Wednesday, including his second home run in as many nights. He hit only seven long balls in just under 600 plate appearances for Syracuse this season. Acuña is 7-for-15 in his first four big-league games.
Mendoza didn’t deny that some players grow complacent in the minors and turn it on in the majors. He joked that Acuña has mentioned being able to see the ball better since his promotion; Mendoza pointed to the better lights in the big leagues.
One error Tuesday night aside, Acuña has also looked quite comfortable playing shortstop. That’s what prompted the praise from Quintana on Wednesday.
It remains unclear how far away Francisco Lindor is from a return. He jogged in the outfield and played catch on Wednesday, his first baseball activity since leaving Sunday’s game in the second inning. Mendoza said before the game that Lindor would need to go through a long series of exercises to show he’s ready to be back in the lineup this weekend against Philadelphia.
Jose Quintana is the hottest pitcher in baseball
With seven more shutout innings on Wednesday, Quintana stretched his scoreless streak to 22 2/3 innings — the longest of his career. Over his past five starts, he’s allowed a single earned run over 32 innings — good for a microscopic ERA of 0.28. It’s the best single-season five-start stretch for a Mets pitcher since R.A. Dickey in 2012.
As the season has gone on, the Mets have been more intentional in lining up their best defense behind Quintana. In each of his last two starts, New York has gone with its best defensive outfield, with Nimmo in left, Harrison Bader in center and Tyrone Taylor in right. Taylor made an outstanding catch against the wall in the seventh inning to take extra bases from Andrés Chaparro.
That’s allowed Quintana to be more aggressive in the strike zone.
“When you execute a pitch and your defense makes those kinds of plays, it’s amazing,” Quintana said.
Quintana’s season has been a mountain range. He had a 5.29 ERA in his first 13 starts, a 1.91 mark in his next eight, an 8.27 mark over four starts in August and this latest run.
“He’s just trusting his pitches in the strike zone,” Mendoza said.
The Mets had been planning to give Quintana an extended rest after this start, pushing him back to the final weekend of the season against Milwaukee while throwing Luis Severino, David Peterson and Sean Manaea against Atlanta. This run of dominance could change those plans.
The Mets took care of business against a bad team
The Mets swept Washington in three of their four series meetings this season, and their 11-2 record against the Nats is the second-best they’ve ever had against a division opponent (behind only the 1986 team’s 17-1 record against the Pirates).
If the Mets finish ahead of Atlanta, their success against the Nationals will be a big reason. New York’s 11-2 record against Washington is juxtaposed with Atlanta’s 5-8 mark against the Nats. That’s a six-game difference.
(Photo of Jose Quintana: Dustin Satloff / Getty Images)
