The Mets found the hit. They found it in time so that more Jacob deGrom brilliance was not utterly wasted. They found it in time to protect Mickey Callaway from some, um, curious decisions. Still to be determined is if they found it in time to make this hit part of a mosaic of magic to rally into the playoffs this year.

Rajai Davis delivered the hit, his biggest since his two-out, two-run homer off Aroldis Chapman in the bottom of the eighth inning in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series that moved the Indians into a 6-6 tie with the Cubs. Chicago ultimately won the game and the title.

Will Davis’ bases-clearing, two-out double in the eighth inning Saturday night help bring a more joyful conclusion for his team. That hit provided all the runs in a 3-0 victory over the Dodgers that kept the Mets three games behind the Cubs for the second NL wild card.

The game pitted strong Cy Young contenders and neither disappointed. Both Hyun-Jin Ryu and deGrom crafted seven shutout innings, the Dodgers starter allowing two hits, walking none and whiffing six. DeGrom surrendered three hits, walked none and struck out eight.

Of course, Ryu righted himself when deGrom was the competition. The lefty’s previous four starts had collapsed him from Cy front-runner to part of group chasing the award as he lasted 19 innings total and had a 9.95 ERA.

This marked the major league-leading 10th time deGrom threw at least seven shutout innings over the past two years. He personally had won just four of those games and the Mets just five going into Saturday. Think about that. The ace of this staff had personally amassed 74¹/₃ shutout innings in 10 starts and the Mets could not bring him a win more than four times.

DeGrom, though, continues to not buckle despite the third-lowest run support in the majors this season. He countered the Dodgers firepower with a devilish change-up that led one Los Angeles lefty after another to ground the ball into a shift on the right side. In the seventh, after not allowing a hit since the second inning, deGrom permitted consecutive two-out singles. But he maintained a scoreless tie by using the change-up to strikeout Gavin Lux, the rookie slugger whose three-run homer had doomed Noah Syndergaard 24 hours earlier.

DeGrom, though, was at 103 pitches and Callaway said, “his gas tank was empty at that point.” Fine. The magnitude of the game meant if at all possible no Met aside from deGrom and the well-rested Seth Lugo should touch the ball for the first nine innings. And Callaway said, “We were prepared to throw Lugo two innings in a tie game.”

Which made the decision to double-switch out J.D. Davis strange. Wilson Ramos had made the last out of the seventh. Callaway could have double-switched him out, made the defense better with Tomas Nido or Rene Rivera and put Lugo eight spots away from hitting rather than six — six meant if there were bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the eighth then a pinch-hitter would be needed for Lugo.

Callaway said he did not want to sacrifice Ramos’ bat — though again it was a full lineup from Ramos hitting again. Sure enough the Mets loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth — Callaway not using Michael Conforto to hit for Juan Lagares along the way.

So now deGrom was out of the game and so was Lugo after striking out the side in the eighth and batting was Davis, who last recorded a hit on Aug. 20 and was 0-for-10 since. But, you know, baseball happens. Sometimes a bunch of dubious strategy doesn’t matter.

Callaway was the Indians’ pitching coach when Davis took Chapman deep, and he felt Davis could handle lefty Julio Urias’ high fastballs well and also that “big situations don’t bother him.” This was big multiplied by huge added atop mammoth. The Mets knew the Cubs already had won in the afternoon and still have one more against the woeful Pirates on Sunday. DeGrom and Lugo at the top of their games already had been spent. The Dodgers have their best starter, Walker Buehler, set for Sunday night’s series finale.

The Mets had to find a hit. Desperately. Behind 1-2 in the count, Davis turned on a Urias changeup, swatted it into the left-field corner, scored all three runners.

Late in a mid-September game, Davis found another big, huge, mammoth hit. Will this one be part of a joyous ending?

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