NL Wild Card Standings: 1 team the Mets might have the best chance to catch

The NL Wild Card race is tightening and one of the teams at the top has dropped three in a row including one to the New York Mets. The Arizona Diamondbacks have looked less impressive of late and have lost two straight to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

We’ve spent a lot of our time in August rooting hard against the Atlanta Braves. As a NL East rival and closest team between the Mets and a playoff spot, it’s an easy place to throw our sports hatred.

However, maybe it’s the Diamondbacks we should make a deal with the devil to see lose. Atlanta has only the 24th most difficult schedule in September. The Mets have the 7th hardest. Fortunately, the Diamondbacks have even more powerful teams to play in the final month.

The Diamondbacks could be the team to collapse to let the Mets into the playoffs

The Mets had the Diamondbacks by the throat in their one loss to them last week. We saw their weaknesses. They aren’t a vastly superior team in comparison. They’ll go into September with the 5th toughest remaining schedule. A combined .525 winning percentage left to face, it’s only slightly harder than what the Mets have at .519.

Arizona has to deal with two more against the Dodgers, three versus the San Diego Padres, and a trio versus the Houston Astros. The “don’t look now but they’re doing really good things” Milwaukee Brewers and Diamondbacks still have to play each other seven times this month.

Meanwhile, the Mets’ toughest games include three at the very end against those Brewers, three against the Braves which is the equivalent of the Diamondbacks-Padres series, and return home tomorrow to host a trio versus the Boston Red Sox. They have seven games against the Philadelphia Phillies who’ve stumbled a lot in the second half. They’re very beatable.

Along with rooting for the Mets, we should root against every team in front of them. The Braves, with an easy schedule in September, might not be as prone to collapse as the Diamondbacks. So if your energy in who to cheer against is limited, put it toward the Diamondbacks. They have a tough road and as we saw already, aren’t playing the best baseball.