Despite the Cardinals winning on a missed call on Thursday night, the Mets remained on the precipice of clinching – a win over the Phillies and a Pirate win over St. Louis would assure them at least one of the two wild card spots. With the postseason spot waiting to be claimed, Robert Gsellman got the nod against the Phillies as he worked to push his prospect stock even higher in his final regular season start (he’ll retain rookie eligibility for 2017). Opposing him was right hander Alec Asher, who was shellacked by the Mets both last season and earlier this month.
The Phillies and Asher seemed able to shake that history early, as the Phillies got on the board first in the second inning. Maikel Franco led off with an infield single, and Ryan Howard followed with a double to put runners at second and third with none out. Cameron Rupp drove in Franco with a sacrifice fly to give the Phils a 1-0 lead, but Gsellman then induced a groundout and a strikeout of the pitcher Asher (after an intentional walk) to escape the threat.
Asher, meanwhile, didn’t allow a baserunner until Yoenis Cespedes singled with two outs in the fourth inning. That single opened up the floodgates though, as Curtis Granderson, Jay Bruce, and T.J. Rivera all followed with singles of their own to drive in two runs and give the Mets the lead before Lucas Duda struck out to end the rally. This would be the start of another stretch of dominance for Asher, as he put down seven straight Mets to keep the score at 2-1 until the sixth inning.
As for Gsellman, he settled in very nicely after the second inning, inducing groundball outs and strikeouts as we’ve seen him do over the past month. He worked around seven hits as well as some heavy traffic in the fifth inning (a line drive and bunt single with one out), but ultimately navigated his way through six inning without allowing another one. Gsellman finished with seven strikeouts, one walk (intentional), and seven hits of six innings of one run ball, exiting in line for his fourth win.
Phillies’ manager Pete Mackanin made the odd choice to send Asher back out for the seventh inning at 99 pitches. That decision immediately backfired, as Bruce lofted a leadoff home run into the first row of seats in left field to give the Mets a 3-1 lead. It was Bruce’s third home run in as many games, as he seems to finally be working his way out of a long, miserable slump.
Michael Mariot replaced Asher and retired the next three batters, but the Mets weren’t done adding insurance. Alejandro De Aza and Jose Reyes led off the eighth with singles, and an error on Philly right field Aaron Altherr allowed De Aza to advance to third. Asdrubal Cabrera popped out and Cespedes followed with a pop up of his own. Cespedes was lucky enough to hit his right at Howard, however, who had the ball blown away from him by the wind as he watched it drop directly on first base. Reyes was forced at second, but a run scored on one of the most bizarre and pathetic defensive plays you’ll ever see.
Joely Rodriguez replaced Mariot at this point and started his outing with six straight balls to Granderson (who walked) and Bruce. Bruce finally got a strike to hit and bounced a ball against the shift to score Cespedes from second and give the Mets a 5-1 lead, as well as his third RBI of the night. T.J. Rivera struck out to end the top of the eighth, but four runs was more than enough cushion.
Gsellman was relieved in the seventh by Fernando Salas, who continued his dominance with the Mets with a clean inning including two strikeouts. Addison Reed followed that up by striking out the side in the eighth, and Jeurys Familia finished the game with two more strikeouts around a walk. The Mets’ late inning troika faced ten batters, retired nine of them, and struck out seven of them. Those sort of numbers will give the Mets a huge advantage in the playoffs if they can get there.
The win lowers the Mets’ magic number to one, but the Cardinals defeated the Pirates to keep things somewhat in doubt. A win on either Saturday or Sunday or a Cardinal loss will secure the Mets’ place in the wild card game. Given that the Phillies are throwing a bullpen game tomorrow, the Mets’ prospects look superb heading into the final weekend.