Oh, how the tables have turned for the Mets!
New York continues their September surge with their ninth win in a row. But, they suffered a massive blow after losing Jeff McNeil for the year
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What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets won their ninth straight game on Saturday, defeating the Reds by a 4-0 score (box)
New York will look for their first 10-game winning streak since 2015 this afternoon in the series finale
SS Francisco Lindor extended his on-base streak to 35 consecutive games – the longest single-season streak in Mets franchise history
Lindor’s career-high 16-game hitting streak was snapped after going 0-for-3 with a walk
LHP José Quintana had one of his best starts of the season, pitching 6.2 scoreless innings while allowing five hits and two walks with six strikeouts
Quintana was credited with the 100th win of his major league career, the first Colombian born pitcher to accomplish that feat
CF Harrison Bader snapped out of a long cold streak with his 11th home run of the season for the game’s first run
DH J.D. Martínez went 1-for-3 with a two-run double in the victory
The Mets have now gone 72 consecutive innings without trailing in a game, the longest streak in the major leagues all season
New York is now 51-20 when scoring first, 17-11 vs the NL Central, 63-24 when scoring four or more runs, and 29-18 since the All-Star Game
Just Keep Winning! 📈
The Mets are now riding a nine-game winning streak — their longest-such streak since Aug. 3-13, 2018
New York is now 78-64 — a season-high 14 games over .500
After starting the year 22-33, the Mets have gone 56-31 since May 30, which is the best record in baseball during that span
Playoff Race 🏁
The Mets finally surpassed Atlanta in the standings on Saturday night, taking a one-game lead over the third Wild Card spot after the Braves 9-5 loss vs the Blue Jays.
The Dbacks and Padres also both their games lost on Saturday. As a result, the Mets are now just 0.5 games behind Arizona for the second Wild Card berth, and two games back of San Diego for the top Wild Card spot.
There are 20 games remaining.
Per FanGraphs, the Mets have a 60.1% chance of making the postseason.
New York has the 9th hardest schedule in MLB the rest of the way.
Tiebreakers:
vs. ATL: 5-5
vs. ARI: 4-3 (finished)
vs. SD: 5-2 (finished)
vs. CHC: 4-3 (finished)
vs. STL 4-2 (finished)
Injury Updates 🏥
2B Jeff McNeil will miss the remainder of the regular season due to a wrist fracture – he could potentially return later in the postseason. INF José Iglesias will play the majority of games at second base for the remainder of the season
Who’s Hot 🔥
Francisco Lindor drew a walk to extend his career-high on-base streak to 35 games. His on-base streak is the longest in a single-season in Mets history, and is the the fourth-longest ever in franchise history. Lindor’s hitting streak is the longest by a Met since Jeff McNeil hit safely in 16 games from July 1 - July 30, 2021
Down on the Farm 🌾
RHP Dom Hamel (No. 19 prospect, Triple-A): 4.1 IP, 6 H, 9 ER, 3 BB, 3 K (loss)
OF/1B Ryan Clifford (No. 4 prospect, Double-A): 1-for-3, HR (16)
OF Carson Benge (No. 5 prospect, Single-A): 3-for-4, 2 2B, RBI, BB, SB, run scored
BOX SCORES
Single-A STL | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (78-64) vs. Reds (68-75)
Where: Citi Field — Flushing, NY
Starters: RHP Luis Severino (10-6, 3.84 ERA) vs. RHP Julian Aguiar (1-0, 6.48 ERA)
When: 1:40 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY, MLB Network
Oh, how the tables have turned… ✍️
It’s incredible how quickly things can change…
Just two years ago, the Mets were in the midst of the second-best regular season in franchise history, where they would eventually win 101 games and make it to the postseason for the first time since 2016. But what should have been a year of fun and celebration became one of stress, paranoia, and – eventually – disappointment.
There was just one simple reason for that: The Atlanta Braves.
Yes, the Mets’ most hated nemesis that often tormented the organization during the late ‘90s and early 2000s was back at it again ready to ruin the lives of a whole new generation of fans in 2022.
Despite holding a 10.5 game lead in the National League East at an earlier point in the season, the Braves made an ungodly charge in the final four months of the season with one of the most prolific runs of hot play that we’ve ever seen. From June 1st on, Atlanta went an incredible 78-34. Despite the Mets still playing remarkably well themselves during that period (67-44), a record that would be good to win a division in almost any other season, they spent the entire summer and early fall looking over their shoulders after the Braves relentlessly racked up win after win after win.
Every single time it looked as if the Mets had put enough distance between the two, Atlanta would just keep on charging back. And, as we know all-too-well, it all culminated in a series on the final weekend where their division rivals swept New York in dominant fashion and finally passed them in the standings for good. Days later, Atlanta would clinch the NL East thanks to claiming the season series by a single game.
For some of us, it marred what was one of the most successful regular seasons the team has ever had and the by far the best one of my lifetime. That stinging feeling carried over into the playoffs, which lasted just three games for the Mets, and hasn’t ever fully gone away in the years since.
But now, in the stretch run of the 2024 season, those fortunes seem to have shifted… at least for now.
This year it was the Braves who built themselves a sizable gap between themselves and the Mets in the National League Wild Card race, once holding a 10-game lead over New York earlier in the season.
The Mets, who were once a season-low 11 games under .500 in May, made their charge in June and early July, eventually erasing that gap between themselves and Atlanta. On July 26th, New York finally surpassed Atlanta in the standings for the first time the entire season – but it lasted a grand total of one single day.
It wasn’t long after that day that the Mets began to cool off from their extended period of quality baseball, going 7-11 over their next 18 games, while the Braves eventually got back on the horse and started a hot streak of their own despite several key injuries to their roster.
By the tail end of August, it once again looked as if Atlanta was in command of the final playoff spot in the National League, while the Mets looked all-but dead as I infamously declared on this very newsletter. After a blown save in the 8th inning in Arizona on August 28th, the Mets fell four games behind the Braves for the final Wild Card spot.
The Braves trailed the Mets by three games on that same date in 2022.
But just like the Mets had to do late that season, it has now been the Braves who have had to look over their shoulder in constant fear.
Since falling four games back on August 28th the Mets have gone 9-0 and made up five games of ground on the Braves (4-5 in that time), passing them once again in the standings last night to take hold of the final playoff spot. Not only that, but New York made up four games on the Padres and a whopping 6.5 games on the Dbacks for the top two spots in the Wild Card race.
What we are seeing right now are two teams with entirely different trajectories, as the playoff odds clearly show above.
This is not to say that the Mets have locked this up by any means – a one game lead with 20 games to go isn’t exactly a guarantee and there’s a lot that can still happen. There’s every likelihood that this tête-à-tête between rivals will come down to yet another showdown in Atlanta during the final week of the season.
Even so, there is something sweet about the shoe being on the other foot… even if it’s just for now. After everything that went down in 2022, there would definitely be a level of poetic justice if it was the Mets that chased down the Braves this time around and delivered the knockout punch at the end of a September pennant race.
There’s a long way to go and more twists to come, but I’d say the Mets certainly owe the Braves some payback.
Around the League 🚩
The Braves lost for the second time in three days, falling to the Blue Jays by a 9-5 score
The Dbacks recent slide continued, losing in a lopsided effort to the Astros for the second straight day
Padres RHP Dylan Cease struggled over six innings as San Diego lost to the Giants, 6-3, in San Diego
The Yankees shutout the Cubs for the second consecutive day behind a joint effort from RHP Clarke Schmidt and LHP Nestor Cortes
Red Sox OF Tyler O’Neill homered twice and SS Trevor Story made his return from a long stint on the injured list to propel Boston to a 7-5 win over the White Sox. The loss was Chicago’s 111th of the season, nine shy of tying the 1962 Mets all-time single-season record
Al Davis would be very proud of the Amazing Mets, JUST WIN BABY!!