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Take no opponent lightly. The New York Mets learned that this week when the Oakland Athletics took two of three against them on their home field. A solid bounceback win on Friday against a Miami Marlins team already auditioning for the 2027 roster helped chase away a lot of the bad vibes from the day before.
Watching the scoreboard and checking in on the NL Wild Card standings has become a daily occurrence. Each Mets win is a step forward. A loss from the teams in front of them makes it an even bigger hop.
On Friday, the three teams in front of the Mets played clubs under .500. All of them lost.
Bad teams have done unto other NL Wild Card contenders as they have done to the Mets
The win and loss for the Atlanta Braves pushes the Mets back to 1 game out of a wild card berth. The Braves dropped their opener to the Los Angeles Angels 3-2 despite apparently having Jo Adell on the payroll.
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— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) August 17, 2024
(via @MLB)pic.twitter.com/pnaPT2Yq92
Running through first base on a potential double would’ve been less embarrassing.
Also on the road, the Colorado Rockies handled the San Diego Padres with a 7-3 win. The Tampa Bay Rays disposed of the Arizona Diamondbacks by a final score of 5-4. It makes for a trifecta of losses. All, coincidentally, were by a single run. Reason for hope for a missed opportunity?
A little further down the NL Wild Card standings, the San Francisco Giants gained a game with a win over the Athletics. The suddenly relevant Cincinnati Reds lost while the fraudulent St. Louis Cardinals dropped their fifth in a row. None of this lot should be written off quite yet. A single hot week will add them right into the fight for the final playoff spot. They’re all within 4 games of the Braves.
The Mets can only worry about who they play. Each game is getting increasingly more important. A weekend series against the Marlins holds weight in two ways. Not only are they going against a beatable club, the second tie-breaker for a Wild Card spot after head-to-head is the record within the division. The Mets are 21-16 against NL East opponents. We don’t want to miss out on the playoffs because the Mets didn’t handle their business against the slop in the division.