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NEW YORK — Early Sunday evening, even as the last few stragglers of a sold-out crowd were still finding their seats, the playoff atmosphere at Citi Field was obvious to see and hear. When Pete Alonso approached home plate for his first at-bat of the evening, the fans rose to offer him a standing ovation in what had a chance to be his final home game as a Met.
Outfielder Brandon Nimmo likes to say the Mets have been playing playoff baseball for several weeks now; manager Carlos Mendoza often quips that they’ve been playing it since June. Regardless of when the trend began, New York is absolutely playing playoff baseball now, which was plain to see throughout its 2-1 win over the Phillies. Nimmo hit a go-ahead homer in the sixth inning, Edwin Díaz pitched the final two innings and a quartet of Mets pitchers outdueled Zack Wheeler to keep the Mets in prime position in the National League Wild Card race.
The Mets maintained a two-game lead over the Braves, whom they’ll see for a crucial three-game set beginning Tuesday in Atlanta. All New York needs to do is win one of those three to keep control of its own destiny.
To reach that point, the Mets took three of four from the first-place Phillies, who were unable to clinch the NL East title at Citi Field. Tylor Megill held Philadelphia to one run over Sunday’s first four innings, Phil Maton and José Buttó combined for three perfect innings of relief, and Díaz locked down a six-out save to seal the win.