NEW YORK — The New York Mets are one win from yet another OMG moment.
The outlook for the Philadelphia Phillies is a little more somber.
The Mets will look to continue their stirring playoff run while the Phillies will attempt to stave off elimination Wednesday afternoon in Game 4 of a National League Division Series.
Jose Quintana is slated to start for the Mets against fellow left-hander Ranger Suarez.
The Mets took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series Tuesday, when Sean Manaea tossed seven-plus strong innings and Pete Alonso and Jesse Winker each homered in a 7-2 win.
No current member of the Mets was with the team in 2015, when New York made its most recent trip to the NL Championship Series and won the pennant before falling to the Kansas City Royals in the World Series.
“We’re looking to finish this and be done, they’re looking to try and extend the series and get back to Philadelphia,” Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo said. “So it’s a battle of wills (Wednesday) and we’ll see what happens.”
The Phillies are trying to avoid being upset by the NL’s sixth seed for the second straight season. Philadelphia reached the World Series in 2022 but lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks in a seven-game NL Championship Series last October.
“As a group, this is the closest to death as we’re ever going to get,” Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos said. “So in a way, we should feel the most alive. We’re only promised tomorrow and this is what we’ve worked since spring training for, to have this opportunity.”
The win Tuesday was routine by the standards of the frenetic Mets, who were 11 games under .500 in early June, didn’t clinch a playoff berth until a dramatic comeback victory against the Atlanta Braves in a makeup game Sept. 30 and were two outs from being eliminated in Game 3 of an NL wild-card series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday before Alonso hit a go-ahead three-run homer in a 4-2 win.
Alonso homered leading off the second Tuesday. Two innings later, Mets center fielder Tyrone Taylor threw out Alec Bohm trying to extend a single into a double.
Winker homered in the fourth and didn’t begin his trot until the ball landed in the second deck.
“That was ‘Oh My God,'” Winker said with a grin, referring to the hit single recorded by Mets infielder Jose Iglesias.
The Phillies were blanked into the eighth Tuesday as their untimely slump continued. Philadelphia is hitting just .204 in the series after scoring three runs or fewer in 12 of its final 26 regular-season games.
The Phillies, who overcame a 3-0 deficit in a 7-6 win in Game 2 on Sunday, were 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position on Tuesday — Bryce Harper and Castellanos laced back-to-back RBI singles in the eighth.
“It’s tough to get down early, but we have to fight,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “As the game rolls along, I think at some point guys (are) trying to do a little too much. We just need to stay with our approach and pass the baton — that’s what we always talk about — and just have good at-bats.”
Quintana, who went 10-10 with a 3.75 ERA this season, didn’t factor into the decision on Thursday, when he tossed six scoreless innings in Game 3 of the NL wild-card series. He is 0-1 with a 2.92 ERA in six career playoff games (five starts).
The 35-year-old veteran is 1-2 with a 3.53 ERA in 12 regular-season starts against the Phillies, including 1-0 with a 2.81 ERA in three starts this year.
Suarez, who went 12-8 with a 3.46 ERA in the regular season, last pitched on Sept. 27, when he took the loss after giving up six runs over two innings as the Phillies fell 9-1 to the Washington Nationals. He is 3-1 with a 1.62 ERA and one save in nine career playoff games (seven starts).
In 16 lifetime games (nine starts) against the Mets, Suarez is 4-3 with a 3.52 ERA, including 2-0 with a 2.30 ERA in three starts this year.
–Jerry Beach, Field Level Media
