PATCH WORKS
PHILADELPHIA — This was Game 162, a game the Mets had to win to force a play-in showdown with the Brewers to determine what was then the lone NL wild card.
It was Sept. 28, 2008, what turned out to be the final game at Shea Stadium. But at 9:30 that morning, manager Jerry Manuel still was devising a way to extend the life of that building and his team’s season.
In the corridor entering that old Mets clubhouse was a board that accepted nine plastic slats with names on it. The daily lineup was posted there. I was the lone media member present, and I watched Manuel quickly slide in the first four names — Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado and David Wright.
Then he started slowly clicking plastic pieces together, a man who had to take a next step but preferred not to do so. He clicked, made eye contact with me, shrugged and then slid the name Nick Evans in hitting fifth. Manuel repeated the routine — click, eye contact, shrug, plastic slide — to put Ramon Martinez sixth. Same again for Ryan Church seventh and Ramon Castro eighth and finally Oliver Perez in the pitcher’s slot with a season on the line.
The Mets, with half an exceptional lineup and half something Triple-A dragged in, lost 4-2 and for the second straight season were eliminated on the final day of the regular season.
I have been reminded of that shorthanded, late-season plummet — 7-10 to blow a 3 ¹/2-game division lead in the final 17 games — watching these emergency-room Mets. Rather than fold, these Mets have taken a Bill Belichick-ian “next-man-up,” “just do your job” ethos to the doorstep of the playoffs.
Terry Collins, Manuel’s successor, shaped a lineup Friday for Game 159 that had two play- ers off the scrap heap (Jose Reyes and Rene Rivera), an undrafted player (T.J. Rivera) and a starter (Robert Gsellman), who was roughly No. 10 on the starting depth chart when the team broke camp.
“We have guys who literally did not have jobs elsewhere who are in the middle of our lineup now,” Collins said.
Before the Phillies began to do Phillies things — think the worst of the Bad News Bears — T.J. Rivera drove in the go-ahead run in the fourth, and Gsellman provided another strong six innings. The Mets opened their final regular-season series with a 5-1 triumph that assured no worse than a play-in game Monday for Wednesday’s wild-card contest.
In reality the Mets have been in a playoff mode for weeks. And you know which two Mets pitchers have faced the most batters in September? Seth Lugo and Gsellman. You know who is tied for the major league lead in games (16) in September? Fernando Salas, who Friday night delivered another perfect inning with two strikeouts. Both Riveras are now regulars and James Loney — like Rene Rivera a late spring release of the Rays — is a semi-regular.
“There were a lot of days in the second half in which I looked out and the only guy from our Opening Day lineup playing was Curtis Granderson,” Collins said. “It is one reason I am so proud of this team.”
The Mets have the seventh-best ERA in the majors (fourth in the NL) this month despite not having Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, Steve Matz and Zack Wheeler. They have scored the fourthmost runs in the majors (second in the NL) this month despite not having Neil Walker, Wright and recently Wilmer Flores and without having anything close to the versions of Michael Conforto, Travis d’Arnaud and Lucas Duda anticipated.
“You get numb to the situation,” Collins said about the constant loss of core pieces.
In 2008, that submarined the Mets. Billy Wagner blew out, and backup closer Luis Ayala was not up to the increased responsibility. Secondary pieces such as Church, Evans and Castro did not offer energy or success. No starter beyond Johan Santana stepped up down the stretch, including Pedro Martinez.
Gsellman has been key to that not repeating in 2016. His ERA now is 2.42 in eight appearances (seven starts). He said he had his best slider of the year Friday. Collins called it a “[Noah] Syndergaard slider.” A 90- to 91-mph whip with both break and dip that he used to get eight swings and misses and as the finishing piece on four of his seven strikeouts.
“This is what I dreamed of,” Gsellman said.
But could the Mets in their wildest dreams have imagined in late September they would be relying more on their B-squad than their hoped-for squadron of aces to get into the playoffs?
“Crazy,” Collins said. “You really can’t predict it.”