The Mets’ afternoon yesterday got off to a disheartening start when inclement weather and the threat of further rain delayed and ultimately pre-empted Jacob deGrom‘s start. In lieu of the Cy Young candidate, the Mets turned to Corey Oswalt for a three-inning spot-start, supplementing him with longtime minor leaguer Drew Gagnon for the fourth and fifth innings in the Mets’ 6-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Oswalt had fallen on hard times over his last month as a long reliever, floundering to the tune of a .458/.519/.750 opponent batting line as his ERA shot up nearly two full runs (4.86 to 6.66 entering Sunday’s contest). Interestingly enough, his last start had come against the Phillies on August 16. He allowed nine hits and four homers over six innings, but fared much better this time around.

Granted, things didn’t get off to the peachiest of starts, as he allowed a one-out single from Justin Bour before grooving a middle-in changeup to Rhys Hoskins that, needless to say, wound up a good dozen rows back in the left-field seats. Despite throwing 13 first-pitch strikes out of 15, he struggled to locate his offspeed pitches, which accounted for most of the hits he surrendered.

Even then, however, the rookie only allowed five hits – one being a groundball single that, with a better read from Jeff McNeil, would have resulted in a routine double play to end the second inning. The results would have been marginally more exciting had Jacob deGrom been on the mound, but given Oswalt’s recent fall from grace, four strikeouts (two of which he needed only three pitches) and two scoreless frames following the Hoskins home run proved to be both a pleasant and direly needed change of pace.

Still down a run, the Mets turned to Gagnon, who had only one career appearance to his name – a July start against the Phillies, no less – when the day began. As the case was with Oswalt, he wasn’t perfect, walking Carlos Santana to lead off the fourth and throwing just eight of 14 pitches for strikes in his first inning of relief. Nonetheless, Santana’s walk would be the only remote damage done, as Gagnon retired each of his next six hitters in order to keep the Mets within striking distance.

As the Mets entered the sixth inning, now up 5-2, September call-up Eric Hanhold got the ball for his third big-league outing, but failed to retire either of his first two hitters. He began by walking Jose Bautista on five fastballs, and allowed a screaming liner into right off the bat of Cesar Hernandez after dragging behind 2-0 – again declining to use a single offspeed pitch.

He was immediately lifted for Drew Smith, who limited the damage to a sacrifice fly from Wilson Ramos before turning in a scoreless seventh inning. Like Hanhold, Smith didn’t necessarily overpower his competition, but nonetheless made good use of his curveball and showing remarkable flexibility as he worked overtime to keep the coast clear for Seth Lugo.

Although Robert Gsellman has often been entrusted with the last few outs, Lugo confidently made his own case as a high-leverage arm (as if he hadn’t already), striking out five hitters and allowing one hit (a homer from Santana with two down in the ninth) en route to just his second career save. Throwing 24 of his 33 pitches for strikes, Lugo became the first Met reliever to strike out five hitters in a six-out save since Pedro Feliciano in 2007. Lugo has allowed just two runs in his last 12 2/3 innings of work, holding opposing hitters to a .372 OPS in that time while striking out 15 batters and walking none.

It’s certainly difficult to envision either Oswalt or Gagnon accumulating too many innings as starters in the near future, and samples of three and two innings shouldn’t do much to change that. But on a day that started with the Mets scratching their ace and not too shortly thereafter falling into a 2-0 hole, the final outcome definitely deserves its share of recognition.

As for the relief chunk of this strangely uplifting win, Mickey Callaway continued to test his younger flamethrowers, and this time saw encouraging results as Smith continued to demonstrate a mature feel for the strike zone while Lugo obliterated a discombobulated, vulnerable Philadelphia lineup. The pitching staff has some clear questions waiting to be answered over this final month of the season, but has already made improvements that weren’t as easy to trace in 2017.