New York Post, Tuesday, August 27, 2019nypost.com50
TUESDAY—7:10
RHP Marcus Stroman
(7-11, 3.18)vs.
RHPYu Darvish
(4-6, 4.43)
WEDNESDAY—7:10
RHP Noah Syndergaard
(9-6, 3.71)vs.
RHPKyle Hendricks
(9-9, 3.20)
THURSDAY—7:10
RHP Jacob deGrom
(8-7, 2.56)vs.
LHP JonLester
(10-9, 4.49)
All games on SNY,
WCBS (880 AM)METS:Pete Alonso
is the 20th NLrookie
to reach 100 RBIs in
a season. Since 2000,
only two National
Leaguerookies have
had more in a season
— AlbertPujols (130)
and Ryan Zimmerman
(110). His 100 RBIs
represent the highest
totalby Met since
DavidWright recorded
103 in 157 games
in 2010.CUBS:Anthony Rizzo
is one of just four
players, and the only
left-handed hitter,
to record 25-homer
campaigns every
season since 2014,
joining Mike Trout,
Edwin Encarnacion
and Nelson Cruz.ON DECK
vs.CUBS
STAT SO?
INSIDE THE MATCHUPS
METS:Stroman took
a no-decision in the
Mets’ 4-3 winover
the Indians at Citi
Field onWednesday,
pitching four innings
before exiting with
left hamstring
tightness. He allowed
one run on five hits
whilewalking one and
striking out one.CUBS:Darvish allowe d
a career-high four
homersWednesday
versus SanFrancisco,
contributing to seven
runs in5 ¹/₃ innings. He
has 44 strikeouts and
no walks in hispast five
starts, becoming the
first MLB pitcher since
at least 1908 with eight
or more strikeouts
and nowalks in five
consecutive starts.By MIKE PUMATreading water is certainly
useful, but at some point it’s
either sink or swim.
The Mets may have
reached that juncture in
their schedule that tells
them if they are swimmers
or sinkers. Three games
against the Cubs at Citi Field
beginning Tuesday night
will have all the trappings of
a postseason series, albeit
with the visiting players
holding a decided advantage:
even if they get swept, they
will still be very much alive
in this NL wild-card race.
But the Mets lack such a
safety net. If a repeat perfor-
mance of last weekend oc-
curs and they get swept
three games to finish this
homestand, the Mets’ post-
season chances could be re-
duced to rubble by the time
they arrive in Philadelphia
on Friday.
The Mets trail the Cubs by
two games for the NL’s sec-
ond wild-card berth, with
the Phillies and Brewers also
in hot pursuit. And the Mets
are well aware of the land-
scape.
“You can’t help but look,”
Michael Conforto said.
“There’s a group of guys
watching, seeing what’s hap-
pening, but we all remind
each other that if we just
take care of business here we
won’t have to worry aboutall that stuff. Everything else
that is going on we can’t
control, so we may get some
help, we may not. You can’t
worry about anybody else.”
The Mets were gang-
busters in sweeping three
games against the AL wild-
card-leading Indians last
week at Citi Field. The
smackdown began Friday
with a loss to the Braves in
14 innings, which preceded a
shaky Zack Wheeler perfor-
mance and then a beatdown
by Dallas Keuchel in the se-
ries finale.
It has left the Mets at .500
on the homestand and fortu-
nate the Cubs, Phillies and
Brewers have done little to
improve their own situations
lately. The Cubs (69-61) just
lost three straight games to
Washington and hardly have
the aura of the ivy-covered
wallbangers who won the
World Series in 2016. But
that may have been evident
to the Mets in June, when
they split a four-game series
with the Cubs at Wrigley
Field.
“We played well in Chi-
cago, there were some hic-
cups that stopped us from
winning the whole series,
but we are confident,” J.D.
Davis said. “This is just a lit-
tle speed bump, what’s going
on right now.”
Seth Lugo’s eighth-inning
implosion in the final game
of that series sent the Metsspiraling: In the postgame,
manager Mickey Callaway
cursed out a reporter before
Jason Vargas had to be sepa-
rated from the scribe by
teammates. The Mets fol-
lowed with four straight
losses in Philadelphia, with
the bullpen directly respon-
sible in three of them.
“That was a pretty tough
stretch for us and we felt
like we were kind of starting
to build momentum in that
[Cubs] series and a couple
of mistakes beat us late in
that final game and we
couldn’t end up rallying to
come back,” Conforto said.
“We just have to play the
type of baseball we were
playing against the Indians.
We didn’t bring the bats
against the Braves. We were
one hit away from a different
outcome in all of the games,
but it’s not like we got blown
out in that series. We were in
all of them. We played them
tough and didn’t do enough
to win. ”
Marcus Stroman is sched-
uled for Tuesday’s start, fol-
lowed by Noah Syndergaard
and Jacob deGrom. The
Cubs have Yu Darvish, Kyle
Hendricks and Jon Lester
lined up for the series.
“It’s good for us as a young
group to get in these situa-
tions, these big type of
games,” Davis said. “A lot of
energy, but it’s good for us.”
[email protected]NL WILDCARD
Team W-L GB
Nationals 73-57 +4.0
Cubs 69-61 —
Phillies 68-72 1.0
Mets 67-63 2.0
Brewers 67-64 2.5MONDAY’S GAMES
Phillies6, Pirates5 (11)
Cardinals 12, Brewers 2ON YOUR MARC’, GET SET ... Marcus Stroman, who is 1-0 with a 4.58 ERA in his first four
starts with the Mets, will take the mound Tuesday night against the Cubs to kick off a pivotal
series that could make or break the Amazin’s chances of securing a wild-card berth. AP