Mets have shown they can handle adversity
The Mets' Brandon Nimmo, right, celebrates after his run with Daniel Vogelbach, left, during the first inning of a game against the Phillies on Friday in Philadelphia. Credit: AP/Chris Szagola
PHILADELPHIA
There’s a Subway Series starting Monday, you know. The Mets are lined up to have Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom pitch against a reeling Yankees team in a two-game stretch that, in other circumstances, would have the Flushing faithful itching to press fast-forward on this weekend’s series against the Phillies.
Sure, Chris Bassitt continued his stretch of success in the Mets’ 7-2 win Friday. But in a lot of ways, he’s the closest thing the Mets have to certainty the next few days. Saturday’s doubleheader means a spot start by Trevor Williams and David Peterson getting called up from Triple-A Syracuse. Taijuan Walker and his ailing back might be around for Sunday, but you’re just as likely to see Jose Butto make his first major-league start instead.
And all of that underlines what can only be described as the most canine of the dog days: 27 games in 26 days, and currently four games in less than 48 hours.
Carlos Carrasco is hurt, Walker is a question mark and the Mets currently are playing 11 straight games against divisional opponents. But while Bassitt was gritting out another outing — using his kaleidoscope of pitches to shimmy out of trouble — it all seemed so . . . surmountable.
Atlanta is 3 ½ games out of first, but instead of waiting for Scherzer to trot toward the Yankee Stadium mound Monday to play savior, the Mets can find comfort in how this collective has learned to save itself, even without all of its most potent assets. Even when Atlanta takes three out of four, as it did going into this series.
“I understand the aspect of losing the series to [Atlanta] was not great, but just treat every day as one day,” Bassitt said. “In the past, being with Oakland, trying to always chase Houston, I think we made a really big mistake of constantly worrying about Houston. And I don’t think Houston was really worried about us. So I think we respect [Atlanta] and understand [Atlanta], but we can’t really worry about what they’re doing.”
That mentality goes beyond how they deal with external pressures. It also affects how they deal with internal ones.
Look, having two of the greatest pitchers of a generation at the top of your rotation is both a sword and a shield, a weapon against great teams and a defense against a sustained swoon. But also vital is the confidence that comes from already having played a bad hand very well.
When deGrom was sidelined until August, there still was a feeling that Scherzer could anchor the rotation until his return. But then Scherzer went down, too, with an oblique strain that sidelined him from mid-May to early July, and this team was tasked with crafting an identity that didn’t rely primarily on the collective weight of five Cy Young Awards.
They managed it for seven weeks.
Bassitt, in particular, has proved himself to be a workhorse, and an adaptable one. He leads the Mets with 141 innings and has won his last four, including Friday, when he allowed two runs and seven hits with no walks and four strikeouts.
“I don’t know if it toughens you,” Buck Showalter said of losing such big pieces for so long. “You’ve got to survive it . . . I think some of the challenges that we’ve had this year have prepared us for it.”
So maybe Walker will pitch Sunday, and maybe he won’t. Maybe the Mets will burn out their bullpen over the weekend. Maybe they’ll scuffle without Carrasco. Maybe someone else will get hurt. You really can’t predict any of it. You can only know you’ve survived it in the past.
“We learned from it,” Showalter said. “We knew coming in here that you were going to have people injured over the course of the season, you’re going to have some doubleheaders, you’re going to have some rainouts, you’re going to have tough series on the road and at home . . . Just embrace it as a chance to separate yourself in challenging times.”
They managed well enough on Friday, though it no doubt will get harder in the next two days. But sometimes, what makes a team isn’t necessarily pulling through when you have your very best. It’s learning how to make do when you don’t.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
