Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
After the New York Mets poured in ninth-inning runs Thursday, the skies opened in Philadelphia, giving them 48 extra hours to celebrate one of their most improbable victories in franchise history.
Both Friday and Saturday games against the host Philadelphia Phillies were rained out, with one of the games rescheduled for Sunday as part of a single-admission doubleheader (starting at 12:35 p.m. ET). The other game will be made up Aug. 20 as part of a split-admission doubleheader.
The Mets won 8-7 in spectacular fashion on Thursday after scoring seven runs in the ninth inning. Over the past 25 seasons, they had trailed by at least six runs entering the ninth 330 times without a successful rally.
“I’m an optimist and I just keep going until they blow the whistle,” said Brandon Nimmo, who tied the game at 7 with a two-run single. “When it’s my turn, I give everything I got. It seems every guy on this team has the same mentality.”
Francisco Lindor said that the Mets simply refused to give up.
“I don’t think it was shock, I think it was just happiness,” Lindor said. “It’s like, ‘Yes, we’re doing it!’ We all believed it, but it’s just like, ‘It’s happening, it’s happening.’ You don’t have too many nights like that.”
The Mets are expected to send Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt to the mound for Sunday’s two games.
Scherzer (4-0, 2.61 ERA) is 16-4 with a 2.60 ERA in 27 career starts against the Phillies. In Scherzer’s most recent outing against the Phillies last Sunday, he gave up five hits and four runs in six innings, yet he and the Mets still won the game, 10-6.
He’s won 15 consecutive decisions, and that marked the 18th consecutive time he has taken the ball for a regular-season game (with three different teams) and his team has won, dating back to July 8 last season when he was with the Nationals.
Bassitt (3-2, 2.61 ERA) has never faced the Phillies.
The Phillies will attempt to erase the memory of Thursday’s maddening loss, which extended their current losing streak to four games. Philadelphia lost on the road to the Mets last Sunday and were swept in a two-game series by the Texas Rangers.
“You gotta bounce back,” Phillies manager Joe Girardi said. “This is as tough as it gets. You’re going to have these during the course of the year. And you’ve got to find a way to turn it around.”
After rallying to reach .500, the four consecutive losses have dropped the Phillies to 11-15.
“There’s a lot of fight in that room,” Girardi said. “They’ll come out fighting.”
There’s no time to pout in a 162-game regular season … unless perhaps you get a couple of rainouts to let it stew a bit.
“It sucks,” Kyle Schwarber said after the loss. “But what are you going to do? It’s over with. Move on tomorrow. You want to win a game, right? You always want to win a game every single day. Like, when we got no-hit, it’s just a loss. Tonight’s a loss. You’ve got to move onto the next day.”
The Phillies are expected to send Kyle Gibson and Zach Eflin to the mound.
Gibson (2-1, 2.93 ERA) is 1-3 with a 4.15 ERA in six career starts against the Mets. Eflin (1-2, 4.50 ERA) holds a 3-5 record with a 5.03 ERA in 14 career starts against the Mets.
Nick Castellanos is likely to play in at least one of the games after being hit by Adonis Medina on the hand in the sixth inning Thursday.
“X-ray’s were clean,” Castellanos said. “I just wanted to see a clean X-ray. It’s the wrist I broke last year, so I’m not a stranger to getting hit in the hand area.”
Didi Gregorius, however, was placed on the 10-day Injured List with a sprained left knee; Bryson Stott was recalled.
–Field Level Media