For the gauntlet that was a second lengthy road trip that began out west against the top two seeds in the National League Wild Card picture, the New York Mets could not have asked for much more — even with the bullpen bobbles at the start of it that looked as though it would torpedo their playoff hopes.
All in all, the Mets returned to Citi Field on Monday after going 7-3 against the San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Chicago White Sox — the latter offering little resistance as New York swept the Palehosers, relegating them to the very real possibility that they will break the MLB record for fewest wins in a 162-game season.
That, of course, is of little concern for these Mets, though there will be fans who trudged through the inaugural 1962 club which holds the current dubious title of being the worst team in baseball history (they went 40-120 and the White Sox are on pace for 36 wins).
While the Mets disposed of the White Sox, they got help from their in-division rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies, who took three of four from the Atlanta Braves, who hold the third and final Wild Card spot in the NL playoff picture. With that, the Mets’ deficit shrunk from four games to just one in less than a week entering Monday night’s series opener against the Boston Red Sox.
Now begins the final lengths of the 2024 regular season’s home stretch. The Mets have 24 games to go following Monday night while the idle Braves will have 25 remaining when they start back up on Tuesday against the lowly Colorado Rockies.
At their current pace, the Braves are projected to finish the season with 87 wins, meaning the Mets would have to go at least 15-10 in their last 25 games to reach 88 wins.
They will have to go straight through the belly of the beast to get there. The Red Sox are battling for their lives as they sit 4.5 games out of the last AL Wild Card spot as of Monday morning.
Following a pair of series against the Reds and Blue Jays, the Mets travel to Philadelphia to face the NL-best Phillies from Sept. 13-15 before returning home to host the Nationals and Phillies once more. They then travel to Atlanta to face the Braves in what could very well be the season-defining series before finishing up in Milwaukee against the NL Central-leading Brewers.
