If there's a Mets fan in your life, you might have already seen the indicators: the fatalistic sighs, the here-we-go-again seems. It's September, and the Mets are nonetheless in first place, by one skinny recreation over the Braves.
That lead was 10 ½ a very long time in the past, and 7 not so way back. The Braves are the baseball model of Lord Baltimore, Joe Lefors and the Superposse that chases Butch and Sundance throughout Wyoming. You may virtually see Buck Showalter peering by spyglasses with the identical addled look he wears each time one among his gamers is plunked by a wayward pitch, muttering, “Who're these guys?”
However the Braves want no introduction to the Mets, identical because the previous fallbacks of concern and trepidation want no formal presentation to Mets followers. Effectively, I’m right here for you. And listed below are 15 causes you actually ought to sit again, take a deep breath, and benefit from the subsequent few weeks fairly than endure them.
And the primary cause is …
15. And the primary cause is … 15: That’s the Mets’ magic quantity for clinching a playoff spot coming into play Monday (after their Labor Day recreation with the Pirates was washed out in bone-dry Pittsburgh). Look, after spending many of the season in first place no person desires to be bumped to the best-of-three wild-card crapshoot. Nonetheless, because the previous lottery business stated, you’ve bought to be in it to win it. The Mets will probably be in it.
14. Followers: Followers endure for many years and pay each worth, bear each burden, and meet each hardship. So sure, you could put on 1998, and 2007, and 2008, the worst examples of September Swoondom. However not one Met does — anyplace within the group.
13. The Braves: The Braves are good. They're rattling good. They're, in any case, the defending champs. And someway the Mets have stored their noses simply forward of the Braves’ regardless of the Braves being on one thing like a 157-win tempo since June 1. If the Braves do catch and move the Mets? It could be aggravating, positive. However would hardly represent a collapse.
12. The Braves, Half 2: Regardless of how this shakes out, simply coping with the stress of Atlanta’s day by day pursuit ought to depart the Mets uber-ready for wherever their October kicks off, within the wild-card spherical or the NLDS.
11 & 10. Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer: Have they been good? They've. Have then been untouchable? They haven't. Would you continue to prefer to have them throw as many as two-thirds of a wild-card sequence, three-fifths of a division sequence, and four-sevenths of the NLCS or the World Sequence? You’d take your possibilities with that.
9. The schedule: OK, sure, the Nats served a sobering reminder that the video games nonetheless have to be performed. And Puma the Nice factors out elsewhere on this package deal of tales that the Pirates, whom the Mets will attempt to play thrice between the raindrops the following few days, are 5-1 towards the Dodgers. Baseball is bizarre. Nonetheless, for those who needed to choose a schedule, you’d be hard-pressed to select a extra user-friendly one than the Mets have.
8. The Braves, Half 3: Certain, in an ideal world, the Mets would have a magic variety of about 1 — or much less — after they head to Atlanta for video games 157, 158 and 159 on the finish of September. However even when they don’t? Why would you concern Truist Park? It's not Turner Subject, which actually did wreck quite a lot of Mets seasons. And the Mets are 9-7 towards the Braves this yr.
7 & 6 & 5. Francisco Lindor, Starling Marte and Pete Alonso: There have been offensive lulls this yr; there was a lull the previous few weeks. However the Mets’ three greatest hitters have principally been constant of their manufacturing all yr and all have proven the clutch gene in abundance — a useful gizmo for this time of yr.
4. Chemistry: The Mets have it in abundance. That makes the clubhouse enjoyable within the good instances. Extra to the purpose, it makes a staff loosen up in extremely pressurized instances.
3. Edwin Diaz: Except we're offered testimony on the contrary, each Mets opponent must win the sport by the eighth inning. That’s an enormous benefit.
2. Buck Showalter: The Mets can have the checkmark on this matchup field for each recreation they play the remainder of the season. That issues extra now than every other time on the calendar.
1. The staff: Look, you’ve watched them day by day. You’ve seen how good they're. They'll play with the Braves. They'll play with the Dodgers. They'll play with anybody. Are we guaranteeing a tour of the Canyon of Heroes? We’ll wait to get that carried away. However keep in mind: this ought to be the enjoyable time.
Would you fairly be taking part in out the string, 17 ½ video games out?
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