3 Mets predictions for their Wild Card Series against the Padres

More than 6 years have passed since the New York Mets have played in the postseason. This time, we’re guaranteed at least a pair of games.

The opponent, the San Diego Padres, can be a tough team to beat. They are also a club with somewhat underwhelming regular season numbers in comparison to what the expectations would be for them in the preseason.

The best of 3 series begins on Friday, October 7, with Max Scherzer going against Yu Darvish. What can we expect out of the Mets in this game and in the whole series? Let’s make some predictions.

1) NY Mets prediction: A scratch-and-claw victory for the Amazins

Max Scherzer won’t pick up a win for the Mets in his first postseason start for them. Neither will Yu Darvish. This is going to end up as a scratch-and-claw victory for New York. It’ll be a tight one the moment the ball gets handed to the relievers.

As uncomfortable as it is to see Buck Showalter turn to his stack of relievers at times, they get the job done in Game 1. The Padres don’t have nearly as much trust in their relief corps. Let’s predict the win goes to Adam Ottavino with the Mets breaking a tie in the 8th.

The Mets offense isn’t quite as capable of exploding as we would like them to be. They pile up hits and occasionally run into a home run. The power just isn’t there to expect much more than a handful of runs.

No one should expect this series to be a battle of bats. In Game 1, it’s a Mets win with the unsung hero being everyone who tires Darvish out by making him throw a lot of pitches.