144 down and 16 to go as the New York Mets put the finishing touches on another memorable and exciting regular season, and prepare themselves for what will be a second straight adrenaline-fueled postseason.
What makes this year all the more amazing is that when the Mets finally put the pedal to the metal when the calendar turned to August, the names fueling this run weren’t what I expected, but the results certainly were as I never saw the Mets as anything less than a playoff team and stayed faithful through all those panic infused moments and the nitty-gritty. I loved every minute of it.
Instead of David Wright, Lucas Duda, Juan Lagares, Matt Harvey and Steven Matz leading the charge as the season winds down, new unexpected heroes emerged like Asdrubal Cabrera, who has blown my mind and exceeded all my expectations. Jose Reyes, returned home and gave the top of the order the catalyst it had lacked all season. Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo, came out of nowhere to give the rotation a huge boost at a time when the Mets were at the brink and had lost the services of Matz and Jacob deGrom. And then minor heroic efforts from the likes of Kelly Johnson, Rene Rivera, and T.J. Rivera.
All season long, the team has shown a remarkable ability to bounce back from every adversity that came their way, and believe me there were a truckload of them. There were at least three different occasions when the Mets were left for dead this year only to see the team defy the odds with such a remarkable resiliency, displaying such great character and incredible heart all along the way.
As late as August 11 after they were swept at home by the Arizona Diamondbacks, the New York media and many in the fan base, had summoned the coroners office to come and take the lifeless Mets corpse to the city morgue. And much to their surprise, not mine, the Mets bounced back yet again with a 15-4 run to launch themselves into a wild card spot after making up a 5 1/2 game deficit.
Our suddenly Amazin’ Again Mets saw their playoff odds jump from 11 percent to the current 81 percent as they get set to play the final 16, with a three game set against the Minnesota Twins, otherwise known as the worst team in baseball.
While we play the next sweet 16 against MLB’s bottom feeders, our competition for the wild card don’t have it nearly as easy.
The Marlins and Pirates are no longer in the wild card picture and have folded up and left camp. Meanwhile the Cardinals are 6-8 in September and the Giants are 21-35 since posting the best record in the major leagues at the All Star break.
The Giants and Cards both had a firm lock on wild card spots two weeks ago, but have since crashed and burned allowing the Mets to slide into the playoff picture while they continue to play poorly. In a strange twist, both teams are knocking heads this weekend while we play the Twinkies.
With the Mets already holding onto one of the final wild card spots, all they need to do is take care of business and win 12 of the next 16 games, or in other words continue playing as they have for the last month. If they do that, they’re a cinch to get in.
This may not have been the original script when the season opened back in April, but what season ever plays out as planned? What matters most is getting into the postseason and how you get there hardly matters as long as you do. And that’s exactly what this Mets team is on the verge of accomplishing in this improbable but incomparable playoff run.
So I’m going to chillax as we run out the string and get ready for that one game wild card that I’m hoping will be played at the friendly confines of Citi Field. LGM
