NY Mets fans can feel good about playoff chances based on the irony of this wild stat

While the New York Mets might not be feeling great about their current playoff standing with the Cincinnati Reds and Arizona Diamondbacks breathing down their necks for the final ticket to the dance, everything will begin anew should they get their ticket punched.

After a strong showing in 2024 that led to an offseason in which the club retained key cogs like Pete Alonso and Sean Manaea, expectations were sky-high, and that's to say nothing about the $765 million splurge to bring Juan Soto to Queens. Yet at 81-77 with just four games to play, Mets fans certainly have had a lot of the wind taken out of their sails.

Injuries have played a role. Some moves David Stearns has made to support the run have backfired miserably. On the coaching side of things, some tough questions need to be asked, and some hard decisions likely loom this offseason.

Still, all will be forgiven if the Mets finish out 2025 by placing their flag on the October mountain top. If past history is anything to go on, despite how it might appear, the way the Mets are backing into the playoffs could just bode well for them reaching the promised land.

A wild stat should leave Mets fans feeling hopeful about their playoff chances

On June 12, the Mets had reached the pinnacle of their 2025 regular season dominance, sitting 12 games over .500 with a 5.5 game lead in the NL East, and one of the league's best records at 45-24. Then, beginning on June 13 and culminating on June 20, they'd endure a seven-game losing streak.

The club would be felled by another seven-game skid from August 3 to August 10, and then an eight-game losing streak from September 6 to September 13. Those three slides in total accounted for 22 losses, 28.6% of the 77 defeats that the Mets have suffered this season.

The silver lining here is that New York has also enjoyed quite a few winning streaks to withstand so many elongated losing skids and still be in playoff position with the season in its final days. Only one other team in baseball history has endured three losing streaks of seven games or more and still made the playoffs, the 2006 World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals.

That Cardinals team finished the year with an undistinguished 83-78 record. They endured an eight-game losing streak from June 20 to June 27, another eight-game slide from July 27 to August 4, and finally a seven-game stretch of losses from September 20 to September 26.

St. Louis would take home the World Series crown by beating the Detroit Tigers in five games in the Fall Classic. In a twist of cosmic irony, the National League team that they eliminated on their path to greatness was none other than the New York Mets, who, at 97-65, looked to be far superior on paper, and pushed them to the brink, coming up just short, losing by a score of 3-1 in game seven of the NLCS.

All of this goes to show that once the October lights come on, the regular season record doesn't matter anymore. The Mets have a roster full of talent, and if they get hot at the right time, there's no reason they can't win. If they do, they'll join the Cardinals as only the second team to achieve this wild feat.