Even with all the shedding they’ve endured over the past three months, the Mets management their very own playoff future with lower than two weeks left within the common season.
The Mets (77-73) entered Monday’s off day with a 1.5-game lead over the San Francisco Giants for the third and closing Nationwide League wild card spot.
The Arizona Diamondbacks had been two video games behind the Mets within the wild card standings, whereas the Cincinnati Reds had been 2.5 video games again.
That makes issues easy. In the event that they deal with their enterprise over the ultimate 12 video games, the Mets shall be again within the postseason with an opportunity to erase all reminiscences of their prolonged summer season swoon.
“We need them all at this point,” Pete Alonso mentioned Sunday, after his walk-off dwelling run towards the Texas Rangers snapped the Mets’ season-worst eight-game shedding streak.
“No matter whether it’s today, tomorrow or however many games we have left, we need as many games as we can. We’ve just got to do the best we can to stack them.”
The Mets’ remaining schedule consists of a mixture of contenders and cellar-dwellers.
On Tuesday, the Mets start a three-game sequence towards the doubtless playoff-bound San Diego Padres (82-68) at Citi Discipline, then will host the last-place Washington Nationals (62-87) for 3 video games over the weekend.
The Mets are then set to finish the season with a six-game highway journey, which features a three-game sequence towards the wild-card-leading Chicago Cubs (85-64) and a three-game set towards the Miami Marlins (70-80).
Add up these 4 opponents’ information and they’re precisely 299-299 (.500), giving the Mets the 14th-hardest remaining schedule in baseball, in accordance with Tankathon.
Definitely, there are wins available on that season-ending slate, although these opponents might simply as simply have a look at the Mets because the tender spot on their schedules. That’s as a result of the Mets are solely 32-49 since June 12 — an 81-game span that represents precisely half of the baseball season.
“If someone would’ve said to me, day one [of] spring training, ‘Hey, you’re gonna be, with 15 games, fighting for a playoff position,’ whether it was third in the wild card, second in the wild card or first, or in the division, I would have said, ‘I’ll take our chances.’ So here we are,” shortstop Francisco Lindor mentioned over the weekend.
The Mets are 5 video games behind the Padres, who maintain the NL’s second wild card place. However the Mets is likely to be catching the Padres on the proper time, as San Diego is simply 8-12 in its final 20 video games.
Clay Holmes (11-8, 3.75 ERA) is ready to begin Tuesday evening’s sequence opener, whereas the Mets plan to make use of Sean Manaea (1-3, 5.76 ERA) behind him in a piggyback technique.
Manaea emerged because the Mets’ ace throughout final season’s run to the NLCS, however he’s struggled this yr since getting back from indirect and elbow points and owns a 7.71 ERA over his final seven begins.
Michael King (4-2, 2.87 ERA) is scheduled to begin Tuesday for the Padres.
The Mets haven’t listed a possible starter for Wednesday’s recreation, whereas Nick Pivetta (13-5, 2.73 ERA) is slated to pitch that day for San Diego.
This weekend’s sequence towards Washington is, on paper, the simplest one remaining for the Mets, however they’re simply 6-4 towards the Nationals this yr and dropped two of three to them in D.C. final month.
The Nationals have been removed from pushovers of late, getting into Monday with a 9-4 report in September. They started the day 24-29 for the reason that All-Star break.
These dwelling sequence towards the Padres and Nats loom particularly massive when contemplating the Mets are 31-44 on the highway.
The Cubs, in the meantime, are 46-29 at Wrigley Discipline, which figures to make subsequent week’s sequence there the hardest remaining take a look at for the Mets. That mentioned, Chicago entered Monday solely 28-25 for the reason that All-Star break.
The common season then ends towards the Marlins, who’re 5-5 towards the Mets, together with successful three of 4 at Citi Discipline on the finish of August.
No Mets fan must be reminded that 2007 ended with a loss to the Marlins on the ultimate day of the common season, capping a collapse by which the Mets blew a seven-game division lead with 17 video games remaining.
The Mets personal the tiebreaker over the Giants since they gained the head-to-head season sequence, whereas the Reds maintain the tiebreaker over the Mets. As a result of the Mets and D-Backs cut up their season sequence, that tiebreaker is but to be decided.
The Diamondbacks entered Monday with MLB’s hardest remaining schedule, with a mixed opponent successful proportion of .552, per Tankathon. The Reds had the sixth-most troublesome remaining schedule (.528), whereas the Giants had the fourth best (.464).
Regardless of the whole lot that’s occurred, FanGraphs nonetheless provides the Mets an 80.5% probability of constructing the postseason.
“Every game now is important,” supervisor Carlos Mendoza mentioned Sunday, earlier than including, “We’re right there.”
