Mets rainout against the Cardinals rescheduled during an already long road trip

Don’t know much about history? Don’t know much about biology? How is Sam Cooke’s knowledge of geography? If he knows a thing about it, he’ll realize the New York Mets are in for a gathering up a whole lot of extra mileage in August.

Wednesday’s rainout against the St. Louis Cardinals has been rescheduled for Monday August 5. It comes after three against the Los Angeles Angels out in Anaheim. After the one game against the Cardinals, the Mets will have to travel westward again to face the Colorado Rockies and then up north for three more versus the Seattle Mariners.

A brutal schedule not so much because of opponents but because of traveling to four different cities is another example of the problem MLB has with teams playing each other once. There’s no solution to this other than to stop the madness and go back to the way things used to be.

This was already a bad schedule for the Mets even without returning to St. Louis

Going from Southern California to Denver to Seattle was already a bit of a nuisance but at least the off-day going from Pacific Time to Mountain Time would’ve provided some solace. The game in St. Louis is scheduled to start at 5:15 EST which’ll give them just enough time to hopefully rest up less than 24 hours after finishing off the Angels. Of course, with the time change, they’ll lose an hour along the way, too. They gain it back before heading to Seattle.

It doesn’t provide much relief to see this road trip come after the trade deadline when the Angels, Cardinals, and Rockies could be more depleted than they already are. Last year, the Mets went into August against an inferior Kansas City Royals team and got swept. Even though the Mets were sellers as well, they had a far more talented roster. Could the morale of the front office waving the white flag had something to do with it?

This road trip which’ll now take them through three time zones after leaving New York is the kind where a game or two can escape a ball club. How meaningful any of these games will end up being is the big unknown as the Mets still haven’t decided if they are true contenders or not. It, unfortunately, all has to end with the best team of all up in Washington versus what we can only assume will be a still talented Mariners pitching staff.

Throughout any MLB season, there are games we can point at as ones that got away. This road trip could end up as a make or break situation for the Mets. Get up for those games and it’ll show a lot of guts in the face of adversity. Play like you just want to get through to the end—and it could be the reason the Mets make the postseason.