Thanks to a win over the worst team in baseball and some help from their rivals, the New York Mets have a chance to arrive home Monday closer to a playoff spot than they were upon departing for a potentially season-defining road trip.
The visiting Mets (72-64) will look to do their part to improve their postseason chances on Sunday afternoon when they aim for a sweep of the woebegone Chicago White Sox (31-106).
Sean Manaea (10-5, 3.51 ERA) is slated to start for the Mets against fellow left-hander Garrett Crochet (6-9, 3.64).
The Mets moved a season-high eight games over .500 on Saturday. Pete Alonso and Jesse Winker hit back-to-back homers in the first inning of a 5-3 victory.
The win was part of a best-case scenario for the Mets, who moved within two games of Atlanta (74-62) in the race for the final National League wild-card spot by virtue of the Braves’ 3-0 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday night.
The Mets were the only team among the top four wild-card contenders to emerge victorious Saturday. New York inched within four games of the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres, who remained in a virtual tie for the first and second wild-card spots following losses to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays, respectively.
The Mets were 1 1/2 games behind the Braves on Aug. 21, the day before they began a 10-game trip to the Padres, Diamondbacks and White Sox. New York is 6-3 on the trip entering Sunday’s finale.
“I feel we’re in the race right now, so every single game, single play, matters a lot for us,” said Mets pitcher Jose Quintana, who earned the win Saturday after allowing two runs (one earned) in five innings. “We’re playing our playoffs right now.”
For the White Sox, who have lost nine straight games, September will be about trying to avoid breaking two of baseball’s most ignoble records.
The 106 defeats tie the franchise’s single-season loss record, set in 1970, and moved Chicago closer to breaking the modern record for most losses in a season, set by the 1962 Mets, who went 40-120-1 as an expansion team.
The White Sox, with a .226 winning percentage, also are on pace to surpass the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics (.235) and finish with the worst winning percentage since 1900.
The White Sox scored once in the ninth inning Saturday before Andrew Benintendi stepped to the plate as the potential game-winning run with two outs. But Benintendi hit a comebacker to Jose Butto.
“It’s not going our way right now,” White Sox interim manager Grady Sizemore said. “But we just try to pull some positive things, keep the guys upbeat and just keep them fighting.”
Manaea earned the win in his most recent start on Tuesday after allowing three runs over 6 2/3 innings in a Mets’ 8-3 victory over the Diamondbacks. He is 2-0 with a 2.81 ERA in three career games (two starts) against the White Sox.
Crochet threw just four pitches Tuesday night before the Chicago’s game against the Texas Rangers was suspended due to rain. The All-Star left-hander hasn’t completed more than four innings in a start since June 30 as the White Sox attempt to manage his workload in his first season as a starter.
He has never opposed the Mets.
–Field Level Media