Mets should be terrified of having to play the Padres right now

The New York Mets blew it this weekend. They didn’t blow the season but they definitely blew their chance to advance directly to the NLDS and have home-field advantage. Instead, their postseason path is a lot more difficult because they couldn’t find a single win against the Atlanta Braves.

There’s still a mathematical chance the Mets do win the National League East and get the much-coveted bye. There’s no real logical chance of it happening, though. Now two games back with three to go and a loss of the tie-breaker with Atlanta, the situation is dire. The Mets now looked lined up to play Friday at Citi Field to begin a best of three series against the San Diego Padres.

San Diego managed to go 4-2 against the Mets this year. Not too many teams had a winning record against the Mets. They were, if nothing else until recently, consistently winning games. It has all changed and the possibility of having to play extra games—and against the Padres—is scary.

The Mets will have a huge challenge if they do face the Padres

Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove, and Blake Snell can match-up well against Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, and Chris Bassitt. In particular, they can do so with the current direction those top three Mets pitchers are trending toward.

deGrom and Scherzer had lesser performances over the weekend against the Braves. It wasn’t the most detrimental of outings if the team was able to provide them with some run support. Bassitt, on the other hand, was far less sharp.

San Diego is beatable and the Mets demonstrated such in the regular season. They have their own issues. None of their trade deadline additions were particularly good even at the price of practically their whole farm system. The bigger difference between these two clubs right now is the Padres are winning regularly while the Mets are going dull.

The postseason tour for the Mets will now likely include the Padres, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the winner of the Braves vs. St. Louis Cardinals/Philadelphia Phillies. While there is no easy way to win a World Series, Padres-Dodgers-Braves on the way to the World Series is far tougher than just Cardinals-Dodgers or Braves.

That sinking feeling you have right now, Mets fan; you’re not alone. It’s okay to scream and shout. The extra games will give us something to do. The extra wins needed is the bigger worry.