Mets May Preview: A tale of two months lies ahead on the schedule

The Mets return to National League action as they visit the Cubs and Rockies from May 23-28 before coming home to entertain the Phillies at the end of the month.

The Cubs were viewed as an interesting team going into the season, with a massive turnover of their lineup to established veterans to fill holes on their roster. And so far it is working.

The Cubs have had the best offense in the National League to start the season, as Nico Hoerner, Patrick Wisdom, and former league MVP Cody Bellinger, have been dominant to start the season, as they all have .900+ OPS's so far this season. Meanwhile, ex-Met Marcus Stroman has been excellent to start his second season with the Cubs and away from the Mets, as he posted a 2.29 ERA over his first six starts of the season.

Then they will visit the Rockies at Coors Field over the Memorial Day weekend, a place where the Rockies have given up 7.7 runs per game.

Finally, they'll host the division rival Philadelphia Phillies for a three-game set starting on May 30. The two teams had several exciting games that went down to the final turn at-bat last year. And the Phillies are coming off a surprising World Series appearance, where they had an incredible turnaround under then-interim manager Rob Thomson. These games should be fun and intense at Citi Field at the end of the month.

It looks like the Mets will have a bit of relief with the returns of their aces to the rotation, and that will lead to a better record than they had the first five and a half weeks of the season. I predict the Mets will go 17-10 during this stretch of games, which would lead the Mets to be 10 games over .500 before a brutal schedule awaits them in June... again.