NL Wild Card Standings: Mets tie the Braves, an opportunity to catch someone else

It took an Atlanta Braves loss against the Colorado Rockies to make Thursday a good night for the New York Mets. Trailing Atlanta by a half-game on a day off, the Braves took an L against one of the few National League teams that never breathed postseason air this season. Only the Chicago White Sox have lost more games than the Rockies this season. Not on Thursday. The Braves no-showed by scoring only one run.

The Braves loss helped push the Mets into a deadlock with the Braves for the third Wild Card spot. Both teams trail the Arizona Diamondbacks by 2.5 with the San Diego Padres beginning to sweat with only a 3 game lead.

Teams trailing the Mets and Braves are 4 games or more back. It would take two bad collapses to help make them relevant again. This weekend, the focus is on winning games against the Cincinnati Reds and hoping for a little help from some ice cold ball clubs, too.

The Mets have a team to inch closer toward in the NL Wild Card standings this weekend

The Braves will host the Toronto Blue Jays who match up best on paper. Playing out the end of a disappointing season, they have talent but remain very beatable. Atlanta should be able to win the series.

A similar sentiment could be said about the Padres who host the San Francisco Giants. A below .500 ball club now who only had a brief stretch of being relevant in the NL Wild Card standings during the second-half, intradivisional games are never easy nor should we assume the Padres will beat them. They go into the weekend only one game better than the Reds whom the Mets invite into Queens.

The place where we can expect the Mets to legitimately make up some ground is with the Diamondbacks. They visit a Houston Astros team that just lost three straight to the Reds. They have yet to actually lock up the division with only a 4 game lead over the Seattle Mariners. Also seeking to snatch a bye, these games matter a whole lot to them; as if any team is not playing for something.

Arizona has gone 4-6 in their last 10 and are 2 games below .500 at 39-41 versus teams currently at .500 or better. They’ve outscored everyone in MLB with a mammoth 765 runs with the New York Yankees the next closest at 714. However, only four teams have allowed more runs than they have. Houston has been one of the best clubs at preventing runs and are close to league average at scoring.

Only 20+ games to go for every team alive in the NL Wild Card standings, prepare for lots of scoreboard watching and wearing caps of teams you won’t typically find yourself rooting for.