Mets piggyback pitching strategy, big bats deliver key win to start Padres series

With less than two weeks to go and a playoff spot in doubt, the Mets had seen enough of the middle-inning struggles of Clay Holmes and Sean Manaea.Two halves of a starting pitcher were stacked together, the club finally acknowledging it would not extract better versions of the pitchers and instead would attempt to maximize the pitchers they are right now. If this were an announcement that it was time for the team to shift into gear, the offense heard it, too.  Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mike Puma about the inside buzz on the Mets.

The piggybacking was effective and the bats better than that in a thorough beating of the Padres, 8-3 in front of 41,819 at Citi Field on Tuesday, when the Mets looked like they rarely have in the second half — like a playoff team. In going from an eight-game skid to winning two straight, Carlos Mendoza’s crew (78-73) temporarily moved two games ahead of the Diamondbacks, who were set to host the Giants late Tuesday. With Holmes (four innings of two-run ball) and Manaea (five one-run innings) combining to quiet a solid Padres offense and spare the Mets bullpen, the Mets got a peek of a tandem that could find its way into a postseason start. With an offense that received contributions from every part of the order, the Mets got a peek at how they can bash their way to and through October. The only negative to surface for the club was Francisco Alvarez being removed from the game after his left arm was struck by a 99.8 mph fastball in the eighth inning. The strength of the 2025 Mets is an attack that was the game’s best in August.And yet for 11 consecutive games that included nine losses in which the club collapsed, the Mets had not exceeded five runs. It took two innings against Michael King — an ace, albeit one building up from injury — for the Mets to beat that. They bashed their way to seven runs on nine hits before recording a sixth out, allowing them ...