NEW YORK — Buck Showalter has managed in a myriad of situations throughout his 21-year major league managerial career. When the Mets skipper takes the field Friday night in the NL wild-card series, he’ll look over in the dugout and see an opposing manager that he once managed (Bob Melvin) and a 30-year-old third baseman who he managed at 20 (Manny Machado).
But the one thing he hasn’t done is manage a best-of-three series, like he will this weekend when the Mets host the San Diego Padres. Part of MLB’s expanded postseason, the wild-card series is now three games instead of one and four teams in each league play instead of two. It’s a new challenge for even the most grizzled of veterans.
“We kept trying to reach there for something,” Showalter said Thursday after the Mets’ NL wild-card workout at Citi Field. “But it’s hard to project.”
