It took Francisco Lindor more than five months this season to miss a game.
It took the New York Mets less than a week without Lindor to produce perhaps the franchise’s most impressive three-game offensive outburst: 30 runs.
The Mets will look to remain red hot Friday night, when they host the Philadelphia Phillies in the second game of a four-game series between the National League East rivals.
David Peterson (9-2, 2.85 ERA) is slated to start for the Mets against fellow left-hander Cristopher Sanchez (10-9, 3.24).
The Mets’ surge continued Thursday night, when Brandon Nimmo hit the tie-breaking homer in the third inning and finished with three RBIs in a 10-6 win.
The victory kept the Mets (85-68) tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks for the final two NL wild-card spots, two games ahead of the Atlanta Braves. New York has the tiebreaker over the Diamondbacks by virtue of winning the season series.
The Mets have won their last four games despite the absence of Lindor, who is sidelined with a sore back. Lindor played in New York’s first 147 games before sitting out a 6-4 loss to the Phillies last Saturday. He returned Sunday but played just one inning before departing in a 2-1 defeat.
The Mets eked out a 2-1, 10-inning victory over the Washington Nationals on Monday night but have scored 10 runs in each of their last three games — the first such streak in franchise history.
Nimmo, Pete Alonso, Francisco Alvarez and rookie Luisangel Acuna all have two homers apiece in the last three games. Nimmo, Alonso and Alvarez combined for just five homers in the Mets’ first 14 games this month. The round-trippers this week are the first in the majors for Acuna, who was recalled when Lindor got hurt.
“We said it: Guys are going to go down and guys will continue to step up,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “And that’s what we’re seeing the past few days. It feels like a different guy every night.”
The Phillies (91-62) mounted a trio of rallies Thursday, when they missed a chance to clinch a playoff berth as their magic number for clinching the NL East remained at four.
Trea Turner hit a two-run homer to briefly tie the game in the third, and the Phillies sent the tying run to the plate in the fourth before scoring three times in the seventh to cut the Mets’ lead to 9-6.
But Philadelphia almost produced a bigger outburst. Kyle Schwarber’s hard-hit, bases-loaded grounder to second resulted in a run-scoring force-out two batters before Bryce Harper laced a two-run double.
“We had that big inning going,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “I really thought we were going to come back and win that game.”
Peterson and Sanchez will be opposing each other for the second straight start. Neither pitcher factored into the decision despite strong outings Sunday, when Peterson gave up one run over 7 2/3 innings and Sanchez surrendered one run in seven innings.
Peterson, 29, is 1-2 with a 4.57 ERA in nine career games (eight starts) against the Phillies. Sanchez, 27, is 1-2 with a 3.62 ERA in eight games (five starts) against the Mets, including 0-0 with a 2.84 ERA in two starts this season.
