The Mets (19-23) will host the Baltimore Orioles (19-21) in a two-game series at Citi Field beginning Tuesday night at Cit Field. The Mets find themselves in a tight race with the San Francisco Giants, Miami Marlins, Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers, and Cincinnati Reds for the final two wildcard playoff spots in the National League.

The Mets squandered an opportunity to draw closer to the second-place Philadelphia Phillies on Monday. The first and second place teams in each division will automatically qualify for the playoffs this year. The Mets rallied from a 6-0 deficit to take a 7-6 lead in the seventh inning, only to lose 9-8 in 10 innings. The Mets ended up splitting the four-game series with Philadelphia.

With just 18 games to go in the shortened 2020 season, the Mets need to play their best baseball over the last three weeks of the season to edge their way into the playoff picture. They’ll begin that quest on Tuesday night when Brandon Hyde‘s Orioles come to Flushing.

The Mets and Orioles met last week in Baltimore, and split a two-game series. In game one of the series, the Mets paid the price for inadequate starting pitching, when Ariel Jurado was tagged for five earned runs in four innings pitched, in a game the Mets lost 9-5.  The Mets won the second game by a 9-4 score, powered by home runs from Michael Conforto and Pete Alonso.

Tuesday night, the Mets will send right-hander Michael Wacha (1-2, ERA 7.20) to the mound against lefty John Means (0-3, ERA 8.10) in a rematch of the starters of game two of last week’s series. The Mets hit Means hard in that games, scoring four runs on eights hits against him over five and one-third  innings pitched.

Wednesday night, Rick Porcello (1-4, ERA 5.54) will take on right-hander Jorge Lopez (1-0, ERA 5.59). Lopez, acquired by Baltimore from Kansas City earlier this year, will be making his second start of the season. He started against the Yankees last Friday, pitching five innings and allowing three runs, none earned. Porcello is coming off a start against the Phillies on Friday night, when he tossed six innings of two-run, two-hit baseball.

What to Watch

The Orioles’ best offensive player by bWAR, Anthony Santander, is on the 10-day injured list. He leads the team with 11 home runs and 32 RBIs.

Renato Nunez (.260/.319/.521) is active, but nursing some injuries.

The Mets will have to do a better job of getting Pat Valaika out in this series. Valaika was six-for-seven in the series last week against the Mets.

Pedro Severino (.315/.392/.505 with 5 home runs) and Hander Alberto (.318/.342/.437) are important pieces of the Baltimore lineup.

The Orioles’ starters have a 4.94 ERA, 19th in MLB. Their relievers have an ERA of 3.84, ninth in MLB.

Baltimore’s team BA is .261, seventh in MLB. They’ve hit 55 home runs, 14th in MLB.

For the Mets, Robinson Cano had a bad series against the Phillies, going 0-for-17. He is now slashing .319/.350/.566 with seven home runs.

Dominic Smith (.322/.390/.636 with seven home runs and 32 RBIs) has stayed hot.

Andres Gimenez, after a brief slump, has been playing stellar defense at shortstop, and has a slash line of .293/.344/.402. He appears to be the starting shortstop at this point.

The Mets desperately need these two games against a sub-.500 team whose best player is unavailable. The Mets’ fate will largely rest on the arms of their two off-season pitching acquisitions, Wacha and Porcello. Both have been less than impressive thus far, and will need to give the Mets quality length in their starts. The Mets’ bullpen has been taxed of late, and Porcello and Wacha need to step up as veteran pitchers on the staff.

The Mets will need to shake off their disappointing loss on Monday, when they could not hold  a hard-fought, late-inning lead. Time is rapidly running out, and the Mets have ground to make up. The Mets have the highest team BA in baseball at .275, and should be able to take advantage of the Baltimore starters (if they can hit with RISP).

The Mets will take a much-needed day off on Thursday, before traveling to Buffalo to take on the hard-hitting Blue Jays next weekend.