The Mets won the opening game of their three-game series at the Philadelphia Phillies, where they pulled away with an 11-3 victory over the NL East’s top team, but they are not resting on Friday’s laurels.
“We are playing well,” said the New York coach Carlos Mendozawhose team is 81-66 and one game ahead of the Atlanta Braves in the race for the third NL Wild Card spot. “We know we’re a good team and there are a lot of things we do well. That starts with starting pitching. They continue to give us a chance. (Quintana) was the case today.”
“But we’re making big plays when we need to. We’re getting big hits when we need to. There’s a lot of different ways we’re continuing to do our job – running the bases, making plays, making throws. So we’re playing really good baseball right now and we need to keep doing that.”
The Mets have won 12 of their last 14 games and contributed across the board, scoring six runs in the fifth inning to turn a scoreless tie into a laughing stock on the Phillies’ home turf (88-59).
“That means a lot to me,” said the left-hander Jose Quintanawho allowed three hits and had four strikeouts in seven scoreless innings, improving to 9-9 and lowering his ERA from 3.91. “That’s really important for us. Right now we’re in a good race. We have a lot of confidence and every game is a new test.”
“We keep fighting. We keep playing like we have been playing and this series is really important for us, as are the last series of the season. So it will be tough and we have to be ready for the next few games.”
With a quick turnaround and a chance to win the series in Saturday’s game at 4:05 p.m. on SNY, the Mets enter this weekend with a playoff mentality.
“I think this series will be very similar to playoff baseball,” said the left fielder Brandon Nimmowhose 1-for-4 line included a three-run home run in the fifth inning that extended the Mets’ lead to 6-0. “And in playoff baseball, everything hangs in the balance and things can go well or badly very quickly.
“So for us, that means continuing to go hard, continuing to have good at-bats, staying with him and then finally breaking the dam in the fifth inning, I think that’s what you have to do with good pitchers. We were able to capitalize on some mistakes and I think it’s going to be very, very similar to playoff baseball here.”
