Mike Freire - "Not So" Wild Card Update

Good Morning, Mets' fans!

I previously put together an article on the National League Wild Card race late last week, focusing specifically on the Mets' chances and what they would need to do in order to secure one of the two available playoff spots.

The Mets were coming off of an impressive sweep of the Diamondbacks and they were on the verge of welcoming the mighty Dodgers into town for a three game, weekend tilt.  As mentioned in the last article, the Mets NEEDED to win all of their remaining series in order to have a chance at 87 wins, which was the pace being set by the teams in the lead for the coveted playoff positions.

As a review, here is the section of the aforementioned article that addressed the Mets' remaining sixteen game schedule for 2019 and how many of those games the team needed to win;

3 - Los Angeles (2-1)  (1-2)

3 @ Colorado (2-1)  (0-1, so far)

3 @ Cincinnati (2-1)

4 - Miami (4-0)

3 - Atlanta (2-1)

Well, despite showing plenty of "fight" against the best team in the National League, they Mets dropped two out of the three games.  As we now know, the Mets immediately left town Sunday night for a three game set in Colorado against a Rockies squad that has started to play decent baseball.  The Mets subsequently dropped the opening game of that series, which is not how you want to start a six game road trip.

So, the team went 1-3 in the first four games listed above.  IF they are to have any chance down the stretch (a very BIG if), they need to finish the season on a 10-2 tear!  Or, is even that not enough?

Here are the updated standings, as of this morning (09/17/19);

1.  Washington     82-67   (+0.5)

2.  Chicago           82-68     ---

3.  Milwaukee      81-69     1.0

4.  New York        77-73     5.0

5.  Philadelphia    76-72     5.0

Things have gotten pretty interesting in the past few days, despite the Mets' lack of success. The Cubs have gotten hot after a very public chastising from their General Manager and the Brewers have basically kept pace with them. The Nationals, who were previously in great shape, are now in a dog fight for either one of the playoff positions instead of trying to secure home field advantage for the Wild Card Round.

Furthermore, due to the recent hot streaks and overall performance of the teams ahead of the Mets in this chase, the leaders are now projected to win 89 games on the season which complicates things for our favorite team.  If that ends up being the case, the Mets would have to win ALL of the remaining 12 games on their schedule!

Much like a fellow Mack's Mets writer stated earlier this week, I think the party is basically over at this point.  However, the team staged one heck of a second half rally to even be in this conversation, so that is a plus that can be carried into the offseason.

Here's to hoping that I am wrong about the Mets' chances!