The Mets have made plenty enough noise this past week to remain in close contention for the National League’s second wild card spot, and with last night’s win have given themselves a legitimate chance to steal a three-game series from the Los Angeles Dodgers.

As thrilling as it may have been to turn a nine-run trampling around and shut out one of the league’s premier offenses, however, they remain a ways from capitalizing on the remaining two weeks of the season, and it’s a loose end the team and its manager will need to tie down as the season draws to a close.

Rajai Davis‘ bases-clearing pinch-hit double will be talked about well into first-pitch, but the fact that the Mets only mustered two hits up to that point should receive just as much attention. Brandon Nimmo and Todd Frazier were hit by fastballs to set up Davis’ knock, but looking past that, the only two hitters to even reach base last night were Amed Rosario and Robinson Cano.

Left-hander and Cy Young award candidate Hyun-Jin Ryu retired every one of his last 13 batters, though the fact that he had allowed 21 runs on 31 hits and five homers in his last 19 innings leave New York with a much weaker excuse.

They have eight hits in 59 trips to the plate during this series, with Rajai’s double last night and a first-inning homer from J.D. Davis on Friday being the team’s only extra-base hits. And as encouraging as it’s been to see unsung heroes keep the team afloat on offense, the time is now for the team’s bigger bats to pull the trigger: Jeff McNeil, Pete Alonso, and Wilson Ramos, three of the lineup’s most important hitters, have combined for four hits in their last 45 at-bats.

There’s no writing off the fact that the Mets came away with a victory, moreover one in which they forced the Dodgers to burn three relievers in the bottom of the eighth. Perhaps going from two finesse pitchers in Ryu and Clayton Kershaw to young flamethrower Walker Buehler turns on a switch, but given they haven’t even run an optimal lineup yet in this series, it’s hard to argue the Mets have put themselves in the best position going into the finale.

Manager Mickey Callaway has squeezed timely production out of their veterans Frazier and Cano, though he also hasn’t run a lineup featuring those two alongside Alonso, Davis, and either Nimmo or Michael Conforto since Monday, and just three times total on the month. Instead, he’s given Juan Lagares regular reps in center field, and has gotten back an on-base percentage some 150 points lower than Nimmo’s through the month. In games Nimmo’s started, the team has averaged 6.3 runs per game – over 30% more productive than Lagares’ 4.0.

The lefty/righty argument doesn’t even work in this case, as Nimmo has as many hits against southpaws as Lagares does in half as many trips to the plate. And if the 30-pitch, three-run eighth taught us anything (or less enjoyably, perhaps Cody Bellinger‘s eight-pitch walk against Noah Syndergaard on Friday), it’s that making pitchers work for their outs has enduring effects, even if the best-case scenario in the short-term is a free pass.

With a number of Met hitters chomping at the bit to get good pitches, moreover, there’s an open path to breaking out and having more games like they did on Wednesday and Thursday against Arizona, where the lines simply never seemed to stop moving.

Playing the statistically superior options in Nimmo and Davis, regardless of either (barely) compromised outfield defense or dopey platoon theory, gives the team its best chance at beating opposing pitchers, even with three of their best hitters stuck in the mud. Considering how tricky it’s been for the Mets to crack starting pitching this weekend, they’re going to need all the reinforcements they can get.