Seth Lugo hopes Mets get second crack at Braves in playoffs: ‘Think we’re better’

Seth Lugo spent the early hours of Monday morning, both on the team charter and before he got to sleep in his own bed, replaying the weekend in his head.

After the Mets were swept three games in Atlanta to all but end their NL East title chances, the veteran reliever decided a rematch with the Braves in the postseason would be applicable.

“I think we’re better than those guys and I think we’ll prove it if we face them again,” Lugo told The Post.

The Mets have quite a road to navigate if they plan to receive such an opportunity. With the NL East crown likely beyond the Mets’ grasp — Atlanta began play with a magic number of one to clinch its fifth straight division title — the journey will apparently begin in the best-of-three wild-card round of the playoffs beginning Friday. The earliest the Mets could see the Braves again would be in the NLCS.

The Padres and Phillies are possible opponents for the Mets, who would be locked into the No. 4 seed.

Mets
Brandon Nimmo celebrates with Mark Canha after scoring a run against the Braves.
Getty Images
Mets
Seth Lugo
Corey Sipkin

Though the Mets were disappointed to leave Atlanta with their division title hopes all but dashed, there is still a sense of business ahead.

“We weren’t in this to win the NL East,” Mark Canha said. “That wasn’t the goal in spring training. The goal was to win the World Series. We can still do that and we need to prepare ourselves for that road.”

Canha clarified his comment to say the NL East title was a goal for the team, but not the primary one.

“You can’t win the World Series on Oct. 3, so we have got to win these games, first and foremost,” Canha said before the Mets’ were rained out setting up a doubleheader Tuesday versus the Nationals. “We have to compete and get into compete mode and get ready to compete once the playoffs start.”

Canha, who went 2-for-11 in the three games, put part of the blame on himself. Overall, the Mets scored seven runs combined over the three games, which wasn’t enough to compensate for subpar performances from Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt.

“Every failure there’s an opportunity to learn something,” Canha said. “I didn’t have a very good series personally and I didn’t have a very good week or so and I am trying to figure out why that is … so I don’t make the same mistakes in the future and I can get back to playing better baseball like I am used to.”

Lugo said he’s already begun thinking about the Padres and how he might approach hitters such as Manny Machado, Juan Soto and Josh Bell. He said he had not given much thought yet to the Phillies, who began the day one game behind the Padres for the No. 5 seed in the NL playoffs. If the teams finish with identical records, the Phillies own the tiebreaker based on winning the season series.

Braves
Braves closer Kenley Jansen
USA TODAY Sports
Mets
The Mets were rained out against the Nationals on Monday.
Robert Sabo

From Lugo’s perspective, the extra round of playoffs isn’t necessarily a problem.

“You think if you get the first-round bye you are fresher because you haven’t played, but does that make you fresher?” Lugo said. “We’re used to playing every day. We had talked about having four or five days off and how strange that would be during the season. You do that during the All-Star break, but toward the end of the season it’s not natural.”

And for his proclamation about proving the Mets are the better team if they get another chance against the Braves?

“I would like another shot,” Lugo said. “At the same time whoever is the opponent, you want to face the best.”

source: nypost.com