Mets inch closer to playoffs + Yankees' elite one-two punch

New York Post

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00:00Joel Sherman back with three up here.

00:04I'm going to start with the Mets.

00:05It feels like the right place to start.

00:07They beat the Cubs 8-5 on Thursday night.

00:09They play the Marlins over the weekend.

00:13The Marlins are the team that knocked them out of the playoffs in 2007 and 2008

00:18when it looked like the Mets couldn't miss the playoffs.

00:21So there's some bad mojo there,

00:22but I always think that history doesn't matter

00:24unless Tom Glavin shows up to pitch for the Mets.

00:27Look, I think the Mets' benefit down the stretch here has been pretty consistent.

00:33The other teams chasing them aren't that good,

00:36and I still think there's a scenario where only six teams in the National League

00:44end up even over 500 this year and that the Mets are one of them, and they get in.

00:51And so the safest way to get in is if they sweep, then they're fine.

00:56They take all three games in Miami.

00:58They can't be topped.

01:00They get in.

01:03I think the Reds and Diamondbacks are flawed enough.

01:05I just don't see them sweeping their series this weekend.

01:09The Reds are in Milwaukee.

01:12The Diamondbacks play in San Diego.

01:17The Brewers have off from Sunday until Saturday.

01:22They're locked into one of the top two spots in the National League,

01:26and I can't imagine Pat Murphy is just going to let his team cakewalk the weekend

01:31and then take five days off before the playoffs.

01:34I think he'll play it out without pushing his pitchers too far.

01:38The Padres still have a slim chance where they could be the number one wild card seed.

01:42They could hop over the Cubs.

01:44So I think that that's in play.

01:46Look, I wouldn't worry about seeds with the Mets.

01:49I'd remember that both in 2022 and 2023, a sixth seed from the National League

01:56got all the way to the World Series.

01:57One of them was the 84-win Diamondbacks in 2003.

02:02The 1973 Mets won 82 games and got to Game 7 of the World Series, I remember.

02:08So just get in, and then we'll discuss if the Mets could beat the Dodgers over, you know,

02:14once we get to Sunday night, if they could beat the Dodgers in a best-of-three wild card round.

02:20Look, I think a lot of this is going to be up to the Mets' offense this weekend.

02:23Their pitching is in kind of shambles, and it didn't help that on Thursday night in Chicago,

02:29they had an 8-2 lead.

02:31It got to 8-5 against Nolan McClain, and instead of being able to stay out of the best of their bullpen,

02:36they had to go use Stanek, who's pitching much better recently, and then their three best,

02:42Raley Rodgers, and then get the bull to Diaz.

02:47It would have been better to save as many pitches for the weekend as possible.

02:51I always think baseball's a crazy game.

02:54If you told me that over this weekend the Mets wouldn't get in because Diaz,

02:59their only really solid pitcher for the entirety of this season blew a game, I believe that.

03:04And I believe that the Mets, I could see the Mets getting in by, for the first time this season,

03:09and becoming the 30th out of 30 teams.

03:11They finally win a game where they trailed going into the 9th inning.

03:16Again, I'm going to put a lot of this on the top of the lineup.

03:20The Mets start an hour before the Reds, who are in Milwaukee,

03:25and nearly two hours before the Diamondbacks against the Padres.

03:30Lindor, Alonso, Soto, Nima, put some runs on the board.

03:36Send a message that this is in 2007, 2008.

03:40Send a message to places across the country.

03:44The key thing this weekend, just get in.

03:47Look, I wrote about this for number two.

03:50I wrote about this.

03:50I was at the Yankee game last night,

03:52and I like the symmetry.

03:55Carlos Rodon pitched for the Yankees.

03:58The Yankees won.

04:01Carlos Rodon and Max Fried both finished with exactly 195 in the third innings,

04:05which is career highs for both of them.

04:07It tied Tarek Skubel for the second most in the AL.

04:10Why do I bring it up?

04:11Because in March, on the day that Garrett Cole is lost for the season,

04:16you could believe to some degree the season is going to get lost also.

04:19And the way that it doesn't is that Rodon and Fried behave like aces

04:26for pretty much the entirety of the season,

04:29and an ace logs innings and an ace pitches at a very, very high level.

04:35I'll say this.

04:36I saw Cole in the clubhouse after the game,

04:39and he said to me,

04:40they've stabilized the rotation.

04:42They've both taken turns being superstars atop the rotation,

04:46winning shutdown games, getting deep into ball games.

04:49That's what they did.

04:51Fried's going to finish in the top five for the AL Cy Young.

04:55I'm almost certain of that.

04:56Rodon will get some down-ballot votes.

04:59Rodon finished .309 ERA, .188 batting average against,

05:04which led the American League.

05:06His growth from that terrible first season,

05:09let's give him, the Yankees, a little credit for getting him through it,

05:12but the big credit to Rodon.

05:13He expanded his repertoire,

05:15and he is such a calmer presence handling all of this.

05:21And we are in a period right now, including with the Mets,

05:24where teams are struggling trying to figure out who's starting for them.

05:27Who do I give the ball to right now?

05:30And the Yankees have been going round and round with the same five for the last two months,

05:33and I don't think it's any coincidence.

05:35The Yankees are 29-12 since August 11th.

05:39It's the best record in the majors.

05:40Their rotation in that time, 22-6 with a .282 ERA in that period,

05:47freed 7-0, .263.

05:49Rodon, 7-2, .243 ERA.

05:52They've really, really carried it.

05:54They've helped the Yankees get into a tie for first place going into this weekend,

05:59last weekend of the season.

06:00They're going to need help.

06:01Even if they sweep the Orioles and the Yankees,

06:04they would need Toronto to lose at least one game against Tampa Bay.

06:08Can the Rays give the Yankees a gift or two this weekend for being gracious enough?

06:14The Rays really appreciated how gracious Hal Steinbrenner was to open up his facility

06:19and let the Rays play there after the hurricane that wiped out their ballpark.

06:23It would be a nice gift for them.

06:26But whatever it is, Rodon and Freed, actually in the order of probably Freed and Rodon,

06:32are going to start a game 1-2 next week.

06:35And when Cole is lost, when eventually Clark Schmidt is lost,

06:40when Luis Hill misses the first four months of the season,

06:43when Marcus Stroman is never healthy or good this season,

06:46when the team never makes a trade at the trade deadline for a starting pitcher,

06:51when you're counting on rookies like Warren and Schlittler,

06:53the Yankees needed no less than excellence from Freed and Rodon.

07:00And they got it.

07:02And therefore, their season wasn't lost when Cole went down.

07:06Let me end this with number three.

07:08I'm going to go off the board a little.

07:09I'm sorry.

07:10You could shut me off now if you don't want to hear this.

07:12But I'm a native New Yorker.

07:15I've lived here my whole life.

07:17I like when the New York sports teams are good and interesting.

07:21It makes the city much better.

07:22You know what the spring is like when the Knicks are good.

07:25It just changes the whole tenor of the town.

07:28And it's just another September.

07:29I miss about half the football season every year

07:31because I'm so embedded with baseball until the World Series is over.

07:35And then there's the GM meetings right after in the first week of November.

07:39And by the time I wake up, the football season is pretty much over in New York every year.

07:43It feels that way right now.

07:44It's 0-6 between the two teams.

07:47It feels like they got mathematically eliminated before the Mets or Yankees did.

07:51And it's September for football.

07:53There's some hope this weekend, right?

07:55Jackson Dart is going to start for the Giants.

07:58And I keep having this thought because they have the same initials, Jackson Dart and Jason Dominguez.

08:04And they have the same huge hype coming into it.

08:08And they have the weird spelling of their first names, Jason with two S's, Jackson with an X.

08:14I guess I'm stretching for commonality here.

08:17But I just wonder if there's something going on there.

08:20And I therefore would remember if Jackson Dart has a really great game this weekend.

08:24I remember when everybody lost their mind because Dominguez homered off for Justin Verlander in his first game.

08:31And then hit four homers in his first eight games.

08:34And then he needed Tommy John surgery and pretty much missed the rest of the season.

08:39And then the hype has slowly died as he's lost his starting job this year by being just okay while others are better than him.

08:47Here's hoping Jackson Dart is better.

08:49I hope New York sports is good.

08:54But, you know, the Yankees are a pretty good organization.

08:58They figure out how to win every year.

09:00The Giants, I know there's Super Bowls in their past, but it's been a long time since they're good.

09:05I wonder, did they actually find a quarterback late in the first round?

09:08Did an organization that's not a very well-run organization actually find a quarterback late in the first round and everybody else missed it?

09:15I hope so. I like New York sports.

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