The New York Mets Still Have A Shot At The Playoffs

September is here and the New York Mets haven’t been eliminated from postseason contention yet. Amazingly, the Mets are in fourth place in the NL East, the same place they’ve finished the last two seasons. Yet with four weeks left in the season, they’ve still got a puncher’s chance. It’s a New York miracle!

As it stands the Mets are 14 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East and 7.5 games behind the Washington Nationals, who are in second place in the NL East and lead the Wild Card race. It’s unlikely the Mets catch either of those teams, even as the Mets finish the season at home against Atlanta and just took the first game of a three-game series against the Nationals.

What the Mets should focus on is the four games that separate themselves from the Chicago Cubs for the second wild card spot. The Mets were in much better shape before their last meeting with the Cubs. New York dropped six straight, including three to Chicago, which put them in the predicament they’re currently facing. According to fivethirtyeight, the Mets currently have an 11 percent chance of making the playoffs. ESPN has them at 13.1 percent.

If the Mets are really going to make a run, it will happen in the next 10 days. After they finish this series in Washington, they have a 10-game homestand that includes seven against two of the teams they have to pass to get to the wild card, the Phillies and Diamondbacks. In total, 17 of their final 23 games are at home.

So all the Mets have to do is win the head-to-head series with Philadelphia and Arizona and then erase the four games they trail the Cubs by and also pass the Brewers who currently have the same record. It’s just so simple. And what better team to do it than the New York Mets?