The New York Mets swept the Nationals and now turn to a three-game home series against the San Diego Padres with a bullpen that has suddenly become the story. New York, 56-69, has won nine of its last 12 since the deadline, and the next test comes against a Padres club that arrives at 67-58.
That is why Padres vs Mets is drawing attention now: these teams have already split work this season, and New York has handled San Diego before, taking two out of three at Petco Park earlier in the year and two out of three at Citi Field in September last year. The Mets are not chasing a division crown or even a.500 mark; they are trying to prove that a late-season reset can still matter when the calendar is running out.
The sweep itself was not tidy. The Mets trailed at some point in each game, then found a different answer each night. Francisco Lindor tied Friday’s game with a home run before New York finished off a 4-1 win. Carson Benge and Francisco Alvarez helped swing Saturday’s 5-4 result, and Lindor delivered the walk-off hit. In the finale, Luis Torrens hit his fourth home run in seven days as the Mets won 4-3 to finish the sweep. It was New York’s second sweep of the month and its first home sweep since the Marlins were swept at the end of May.
The real shift has come from the bullpen. Since August 3, the Mets’ relievers have posted a 2.79 ERA, third in baseball, and they were even sharper against the Nationals, covering 10 scoreless innings over the three games while allowing three hits, striking out 12 and handing out one free pass. Jonathan Pintaro and Jefry Yan each picked up their first major league win in that series, while Daniel Duarte has not allowed an earned run in 6 2/3 innings after the deadline and owns a 0.93 ERA in 19 1/3 innings on the season. Nate Lavender led the bullpen with 0.2 fWAR since the deadline and has not allowed an earned run in 4 2/3 innings. Xzavion Curry allowed one earned run in five innings, and Yan gave up one earned run in five innings.
Kodai Senga is part of that picture, too, even if his role has been the most unusual of the group. He has not allowed an earned run in five innings of work and has collected the first three saves of his major league career. That is the kind of turnaround New York needed after trading Brooks Raley, Luke Weaver and A.J. Minter, with Devin Williams also on the IL. The bullpen was supposed to be patched together for the stretch run; instead, it has become the reason the Mets have looked like their best version of the season.
Now comes the harder question. The Mets have momentum, but they are still carrying a 56-69 record into a series against a Padres team that is playing well and has already beaten them in a three-game set this year. If New York can keep getting that kind of relief work, the Padres will have to solve a club that suddenly refuses to play like its record says it should.
