Edwin Díaz's latest meltdown puts Mets in the danger zone

The Mets closer implodes in the 8th inning as the club loses a brutal game. Plus, how the team's playoff hopes may be over.

• The Mets lost a brutal game in Arizona on Thursday, falling to the Dbacks by an 8-5 score (box)

• RHP Edwin Díaz melted down for the second straight appearance on this road trip, walking two batters before giving up a game-winning grand slam to Corbin Carroll with two outs in the 8th inning

• The blown save was Díaz’s sixth of the season, his most in single year since 2021

• RHP Luis Severino was shaky once again, lasting just 4.2 innings while allowing four runs on eight hits and a walk with nine strikeouts

• CF Harrison Bader broke out of his massive slump with a two-run home run (10) that knotted the game in the 5th inning

• New York is now 5-4 in their difficult stretch against the Orioles, Padres and Dbacks and are 3-3 to start their 10-game road trip

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Playoff Race 🏁

With their loss vs the Diamondbacks, the Mets fell four games out of a postseason spot on Thursday night. They are also now six games behind the Padres and seven games behind the Diamondbacks for the top two Wild Card spots in the National League.

There are 29 games remaining.

Per FanGraphs, the Mets have a 13.1% chance of making the postseason.

New York has the 13th easiest schedule in MLB the rest of the way.

Tiebreakers:

• vs. ATL: 5-5

• vs. ARI: 3-3

• vs. SD: 5-2 (finished)

• vs. SF: 2-4 (finished)

• vs. CHC: 4-3 (finished)

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Down on the Farm 🌾

• SS Luisangel Acuña (No. 12 prospect, Triple-A): 2-for-5, RBI

• RHP Blade Tidwell (No. 8 prospect, Triple-A): 4 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K

• DH Carson Benge (No. 5 prospect, Single-A): 3-for-4, HR (2), 2B, 3 RBI, BB, 2 runs scored

BOX SCORES

Single-A STL | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR

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Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (69-64) vs. D-backs (76-57)

Where: Chase Field - Phoenix, AZ

Starters: LHP David Peterson (8-1, 2.85 ERA) vs. RHP Ryne Nelson (9-6, 4.29 ERA)

When: 3:40 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY

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I’m calling it for the 2024 Mets… ✍️

Perhaps I’m running the risk of making the same mistake I made earlier this season, but I think it’s time: I’m calling it on the 2024 Mets.

Thursday night was just the latest in abjectly awful losses, as the Mets continue to alternate their new best wins of the season with their new worst losses of the season over the last few weeks. And not only was this loss painful in itself as Mets fans were once again forced to watch Edwin Díaz melt down in the late innings of a game on the West Coast – something that has become all too familiar over the last several years – but in large part due to the standings not remotely working out in this team’s favor.

The Braves simply aren’t losing, and despite the Mets actually starting out their difficult stretch vs the Orioles, Padres and Dbacks with a winning record (5-4), they’re actually lost 2.5 games in the standings since last Tuesday. Following last night’s low, New York is now four full games behind Atlanta for the third and final playoff spot in the National League, six games behind the Padres and seven games behind the Dbacks.

And while they are mathematically still alive and have a full month of September to attempt to make up this ground, you’re starting to get the sense that things are getting late early for this baseball team.

For reference, the last time the Mets made the postseason after trailing by at least four games entering the month of September was 1973 – 51 years ago.

Is it out of the question that the remarkably injured Braves cool off sometime soon and the Mets have one last hot streak left in them? No, but does anyone actually feel like that’s the way things are going to break?

Let’s face it, we knew this was going to be a very up-and-down season from the Mets that was more likely than not to end before October. I myself predicted the club to finish 84-78 and just missing out on the third Wild Card spot in our preseason predictions on this very newsletter.

Ultimately, things have largely gone the way I and many others likely expected, but when you find yourself in the flow of the season and see the opportunities that were there to be had, you can’t help but feel as if this team left some meat on the bone. It wasn’t all that long ago that the Braves couldn’t get out of their own way, losing nearly every game for a several week stretch. And while the Mets very briefly caught up with Atlanta, they couldn’t hold onto it for more than a day before coughing it back up and struggling themselves, wasting that incredibly rare cold stretch for this Braves franchise.

Since then the Mets have found themselves on the outside looking in, seeing the three teams ahead of them in the standings all winning on the same day more often than a day where even one of them would lose a game. In the last 34 days, the Mets have lost 4.5 games to the Braves, 6.5 games to the Padres and 8.5 games to the Dbacks in the standings. On July 26th, they were the top Wild Card team in the National League, but now they are on the outside looking in and having been moving in the wrong direction over the last several weeks.

In some ways, this season has felt an awful lot like 2019. Most Mets fans gave up on the season early on, only for the club to suddenly come back to life with a massive hot streak and reinvigorate this fan base that is so desperate to see any signs of a pulse. But much like 2019, that hot run was not sustainable and the team ultimately cooled off at a bad time, and fell back down in the standings once again. That 2019 club did finish with a winning month of September, but it still wasn’t enough to overcome their cold stretch. For reference, the 2019 Mets were 4.5 games back of a playoff spot entering the month of September that year.

At times this has been a surprisingly fun year giving us moments we never anticipated and in others, moments of remarkable frustration and anguish. So, in other words, a pretty typical Mets season…

I suppose there could potentially be one last twist for this 2024 Mets ride to take in the season’s final weeks, and at this point nothing would truly surprise me, but I think I’ve reached the point where my belief in this team has all but extinguished. As always I’ll continue to watch, continue to root and continue to hope, but I think we all know where this year appears to be headed.

If this turns out to be a Cold Take Exposed special, I’ll retweet it myself with glee. Until then, though, I think I’m calling it an unofficial wrap on the 2024 Mets season.

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Around the League 🚩

• The Braves won yet again, for the 9th time in their last 11 games, and beat the Twins by a 5-1 score

• Astros DH Yordan Alvarez crushed three home runs in Houston’s 10-0 win over the Phillies

• Yankees LHP Carlos Rodón struggled once again as the Bombers fell to the Nationals, 5-2, and lost the series in D.C.

• Cubs C Christian Bethancourt drove home seven runs as Chicago overcame a 10-3 deficit to defeat the Pirates, 14-10

• Rangers OF Travis Jankowski robbed what would have been a walk-off three-run home run as Texas held on to sweep a doubleheader vs the White Sox