As the Mets were steamrolling Tuesday night to victory No. 100, what would have been a more meaningful accomplishment officially became unreachable.
The Braves won in Miami to clinch the NL East title for a fifth straight season, sending the Mets to a best-of-three wild-card series this weekend against the Padres, who clinched the No. 5 seed with their victory Tuesday and the Phillies’ loss.
After leading the division by as much as 10 ½ games on June 1, the Mets — who ultimately were in first place for 175 days — watched as the Braves played at a 78-33 clip over the final four months to erase that advantage. Included was a three-game sweep of the Mets last weekend at Truist Park to all but decide the race.
“We knew it was a long shot when we lost that last game in Atlanta, but we still wanted to put the pressure on them,” Brandon Nimmo said after the Mets swept a doubleheader, beating the Nationals 4-2 and 8-0 at Citi Field. “But 100 wins is nothing to turn your nose up at. It’s only been done four times here and two of those teams are World Series champions (1969 and 1986). But there is definitely some disappointment in finally being knocked out of the division race.”
The Mets can now focus on aligning their rotation and selecting a roster to face the Padres, against whom they lost four of six games during the regular season.
“It’s like I told [the players] when we left Atlanta: Everything is still there for them,” manager Buck Showalter said.
Francisco Alvarez’s first major league home run was among the highlights of the nightcap. The 20-year-old catcher launched a solo blast in the sixth inning for his first major league hit, snapping an 0-for-8. Alvarez also doubled in the eighth inning.
Nimmo enjoyed a huge afternoon/night by going a combined 6-for-8 at the plate with a homer in each game. In the race for the National League batting title, Jeff McNeil finished the doubleheader with a .326 batting average. Freddie Freeman is hitting .322 after going 0-for-4 Tuesday night.
Nimmo, Francisco Lindor and McNeil homered in succession to begin the nightcap. It marked the first time in franchise history the Mets began a game with three straight homers.
Carlos Carrasco took a measure of satisfaction in Game 1 from a third straight shortened outing. He was removed after surrendering a two-run homer in the fifth to Riley Adams. Carrasco lasted four-plus innings that consisted of 73 pitches and allowed two earned runs on five hits.
“I knew I wasn’t going to throw that many pitches because I did a lot in my two previous,” Carrasco said. “I couldn’t get a feel in the last two starts and this one I felt better.”
Carrasco lasted just three innings against the Marlins last week, which followed a start in Milwaukee in which he was removed after four. His curtailed starts have occurred as Taijuan Walker is showing late-season improvement, perhaps simplifying the equation for team brass on which pitcher would best fit a NLDS rotation behind deGrom, Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt. In the wild-card round the Mets would need only three starters.
Walker struck out 10 batters over 4 ¹/₃ scoreless innings in the nightcap.
“We have got some tough decisions to make down the road and we have got some good options to pick from,” Showalter said. “We’ll take everything into play … and if there’s just variables that are causing us to pivot.”
For the season, Carrasco has pitched 152 innings. Last season he pitched only 53 ²/₃ innings after missing the first four months with a hamstring injury. He also pitched fewer than 100 innings in each of 2019 (when he fought cancer) and 2020 (a pandemic-shortened season).
“There were some unknowns coming into the year about him, about him being able to hold up and be effective, but he has been,” Showalter said. “He’s been solid.”
Drew Smith, David Peterson, Adam Ottavino and Edwin Diaz combined to pitch the final five innings scoreless. Diaz recorded the final four outs and earned his 32nd save in 35 chances.
