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.

3) NY Mets prediction: Chris Bassitt starts Game 2 over Jacob deGrom

Buck Showalter has been careful not to reveal what his rotation will look like. Will it be Chris Bassitt or Jacob deGrom in Game 2?

Because I am predicting a win in Game 1, it would seem the team would lean toward saving deGrom for a possible Game 3 instead. That’s no insult to Bassitt who was the team’s most reliable pitcher in a combination of ability and availability this season.

deGrom is coming off of a strange start against the Atlanta Braves in the regular season. He was both dominant and not quite himself. We won’t get to see him take on the Padres in any form because his teammates will handle business and allow him to rest up a little extra before the NLDS versus the Los Angeles Dodgers. This series would begin on Tuesday. deGrom would have plenty of rest.

An added bonus to sweeping the Padres is they could come back with deGrom, Scherzer, and Bassitt to begin the NLDS. A big part of winning in the postseason is cutting down the number of games you play. If the Mets have to stretch to a third, the opener in Los Angeles would have to be someone other than these three—unless the Mets are willing to pitch Scherzer on short rest.