NL Wild Card Standings: NY Mets can't afford to sleep on this underdog catching them

The NY Mets are in a rough spot, a very rough spot. In the days following their flurry of trade-deadline acquisitions, hopes were higher than ever in Flushing. The team was playing solid, and even more reinforcements were on their way. What could possibly go wrong?

What went wrong was just about everything. The Mets just finished getting swept by the Guardians, which includes almost getting no-hit on Wednesday. In general, they are one for six this month, and they've lost eight of their last 10. It's been an up-and-down season, as most are. But even during all the downs, it has felt like a Wild Card spot was still the absolute worst-case scenario. Even at their lowest, the Mets still looked like a playoff team. Right now, however, they look like anything but a playoff team. And a certain 1970s-era foe is gaining on them day by day... by day.

Mets have to pay close attention to a Big Red Machine lurking in the Central Division

As the losses mount and the Phillies move farther away in the standings, the Mets have to start looking at the Wild Card, as opposed to the division. After Wednesday's loss to Cleveland, they sit 3.5 games behind the Cubs and three games ahead of Cincinnati. Their five-game cushion on the Giants allows them some breathing room, so it's really just one team to be worried about (if we're worried about San Francisco, the season is probably already over). But three games are too close for comfort. And while Cincy is far from a juggernaut, they are a talented team that creeps closer to New York by the day.

Now, before I raise the alarm bells, it's not as if they are red hot (pun intended). However, they did take an important series, two games to one, over the Cubs this week. They've also won five of their last ten, which is significantly better than how the Mets are performing. They added reinforcements of their own at the deadline in third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes and pitcher Zack Littell, so they've geared up for a real run at this. And it feels beyond plausible that Elly De La Cruz gets scalding hot, and Mets fans forever remember the Summer when they groaned daily as they checked his box score.

As Drew Koch over at Blog Red Machine pointed out, it's not as if the Mets have the easiest schedule to contend with either. As they head down the stretch, they still have to face Philadelphia seven more times, and have two series coming up against the Cubs and Brewers (who nobody wants to see right now). They also still have to travel to Great American Ballpark for a three-game series in September, which can turn out to be a massive series for both teams.

I would love only to have to worry about the Phillies right now, and with the Mets just three games behind them, the division race is certainly not out of the question. Being realistic, though, it does feel like the Wild Card race is where the Mets will live for the remainder of the season. This means it's time to start checking Cincinnati Reds' scores on a nightly basis, and rooting against them like it's the 1973 NLCS all over again. Hopefully, Pete Rose and Bud Harrelson are looking down on all of us and smiling... and maybe even still brawling.