A Nationals loss cut it from three to two. A powerful Mets win — Syndergaard, Duda and Granderson at the forefront — sliced it from two to one. That’s where the magic number stands now. With one more Mets win or one more Nats loss, the Mets will have officially qualified for the postseason.
With one more Mets win or one more Nats loss, it occurs to me that the October routine to which I have hewed for the past eight autumns will be altered significantly.
With one more Mets win or one more Nats loss, I won’t be writing that post that puts in perspective how long the Mets have waited — and are still waiting — to make the playoffs again.
With one more Mets win or one more Nats loss, I won’t be seeking new ways to compare the Mets’ ongoing playoff drought to those of other teams that haven’t won anything in a very long time.
With one more Mets win or one more Nats loss, I won’t be going to the well of the same seven previous Met postseasons to draw parallels to what’s going on in yet another Metless postseason.
With one more Mets win or one more Nats loss, I won’t have to attempt to cheer myself/us up by gratuitously referencing something that happened in October of 1969, 1973, 1986, 1988, 1999, 2000 or 2006.
With one more Mets win or one more Nats loss, I won’t have to temporarily align myself with or against some team I don’t give a fig about the rest of the year.
With one more Mets win or one more Nats loss, I won’t feel compelled to weave a tenuous Mets angle to make whatever I’m writing about some non-Mets playoff team quasi-relevant to a Mets readership.
With one more Mets win or one more Nats loss, I won’t lose a large percentage of my sense of purpose once the regular season is over.
With one more Mets win or one more Nats loss, I won’t be treating the postseason as I imagine a heroin addict treats methadone.
With one more Mets win or one more Nats loss, I won’t be continually monitoring my interest level in October baseball and either wondering why it’s not greater or marveling that it’s as great as it is.
With one more Mets win or one more Nats loss, I won’t have any idea what’s going in one NLDS and two ALDSes.
With one more Mets win or one more Nats loss, I won’t have to frame winter’s spiritual arrival quite so soon.
With one more Mets win or one more Nats loss, I won’t soon mention 2007 or 2008 except incidentally.
With one more Mets win or one more Nats loss, what I will do is…
Well, I can’t say for sure, but I sure look forward to finding out.
I guess his back is feeling better. Wow! In his last 3 games Mr. Duda (Little Luke to Keith) has reached base 8 times with 5 extra base hits including multiple knocks off of lefties. In the process he has summarily silenced those who thought he might miss some time during the playoffs through platooning or mixing and matching, and shown why he is indispensable and perhaps THE key to the Mets lineup. His lefty power is virtually peerless and the perfect balance to Cespedes. The pitching is rounding into shape, Murph is red hot, the team is as healthy as it’s been all year….the playoffs can’t start soon enough. LGM!!
And Caitlyn Harvey going today!
From Lute Barnes to Rey Ordonez!
LGM!
If Harvey foregoes an innings limit today and pitches a normal start with the purpose, like a real staff ace, of clinching the division, that would go a long way to win back his reputation.
If Harvey clinches the division today for the Mets, we won’t care if he pitches only 2-3 innings to stay under a hard cap in a tune-up against the Nationals. Of course, Harvey needs to pitch normally in the play-offs to win back his reputation.
No. What’s important now is him pitching complete start(s) in the postseason.
Amen (which seems like the appropriate ending for a post that reads like Aveinu Malkeinu)!
With one more Mets win or one more Nats loss, I’m going to turn up the volume on The Scientist, singing and laughing and wooing between sips of champagne.
I am getting giddy now. I have to admit through my own cynicism the thing i didnt expect was for the nats to utterly flame out. I wonder if bryce gives a crap about what the mets are doing now
Comparing the 2015 Mets and Nationals to the 2007 Mets and Phillies at the point of the 2007 collapse, or ‘7 games up with 17 to play’, their records were nearly the same. The Nationals held the advantage of finishing the season against the Mets while the Phillies had to rely on the help of other teams to win at the end.
After game 154, the 2015 Mets record is only 1 game better than the 2007 Mets, but the Nationals have since fallen back far from the 2007 Phillies.
Looking forward to what could be a special day today. LGM indeed!
Hey, we have home field against the Nats if there’s a one-game playoff, right?
You know. Just in case.
Yes.
Mets are leading the season series with the Nationals 10-6 so even if the Mets lose out while the Nationals run the table, the Mets will win the season series 10-9.
http://m.mlb.com/news/article/59527184/playoff-tiebreaker-rules
Two-Club Tie for Division Championship (Losing team does not qualify for Wild Card):
One tiebreak game will be played to determine the Division Champion. Home field advantage will be determined by the rules above for a two-team tiebreaker.
…
Determining Home-Field Advantage in Two-Team Tiebreakers
1. Head-to-head winning percentage during the regular season.
Almost there. Redemption watch: Nationals (78-75) fall 5 games behind the 2007 Phillies (83-70) after game 153. Mets (87-67) stay 1 game ahead of the 2007 Mets (86-68) after game 154. The Mets are 8.5 games ahead of the Nationals with a magic number of 1 while the Nationals’ magic number is 18(!). After game 154 in 2007, the Mets were 1.5 games ahead of the Phillies with a magic number of 7 while the Phillies’ magic number was 10.
It was a good night. Mets won and Nationals lost. Dodgers lost, too. Syndergaard was strong on the road against a veteran line-up that scores well in its home park. Duda had been making contact and not striking out, which showed his slump was not like his earlier sump. He just wasn’t making hard contact, which might have meant his back was hindering him. The HRs were a good sign that his back’s okay.
When a hitter like Conforto bats 7th and there’s no obvious place to move him up in the line-up, that’s a pretty good line-up. Leading off for the Mets is an RBI position.
An 11-run lead with 2 outs in the 8th inning isn’t enough to finish the game with Parnell and lefty Parnell.
I imagine there are 1000s of Mets fans streaming towards Cincinnati right now with a back-up plan ready for an overnight stay in case Harvey leaves the coup de grâce to deGrom. We preferred the Mets take the magic number down to 0 while celebrating with their fans at home, but clinching the division championship on the road is also appropriate given how the Mets turned the season around on the road.
A benefit to clinching on the road is the Mets will have a week to themselves to digest their achievement with each other and shift gears to preparing for the play-offs before coming back to the tumult of home and NYC.
Harvey isn’t the Dark Knight of Gotham anymore, but his promotion in 2012 still heralded the dawn of a better Mets era.
I hope Harvey pleasantly surprises us today by taking back his former staff-ace persona with a normal start, ie, ~110 pitches with no innings cap. Win the division today with a full effort, then shut it down at 2-3 innings against the Nationals if that’s needed to squeeze under a regular-season hard cap. Pitch an ace 7 innings, walk off the mound to the cheers of Mets fans with his head high, satisfied he’s put in a full day’s work, and turn the lead over clean to Reed/Clippard. It would be appropriate for the homegrown closer, 1st-half team MVP Familia to be the one to finish the Mets clinch.
The 2007 Mets collapse has been for 8 years, and it’s almost over.
cheers everyone!
it looks like the rut was well-timed and is now officially over, as is the long nightmare of 2007.
let go mets!
Leaving home was like flipping a switch. Unlike the 1st half Mets, the post-trade deadline Mets clearly play better on the road.
That’s not to say the Mets ought to avoid pulling even with the Dodgers for HFA. The Dodgers are significantly better at home.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/LAD/2015-schedule-scores.shtml
Split W L RS RA WP
Home 52 26 326 258 .667
Road 35 40 303 301 .467
The Dodgers will also field the last vestige of the 2007 Mets collapse with Rollins and Utley and it would be nice to sweep that away, too.
Big picture guys: as long as Harvey can give the Mets 1 quality start in the playoffs (7 innings of 0-2 run ball) per round I will be happy. Who cares how he gets there.if our young guns are at the top of their game we can go far!
The key for Harvey avoiding the Strasburg stigma was always taking his turn in the post-season.
I’m annoyed by the Harvey innings-limit controversy because it was unnecessary.
We accepted from the start that Harvey’s 1st season back from TJ surgery would have restrictions. The 2 sides’ intent for Harvey in his recovery season was the same. Then with the controversy, Harvey and Boras’s hard cap and the Mets’ soft cap worked out to a difference of only a handful of innings. Given the Mets’ flexibility and care with Harvey, any differences, even late developing ones, over a handful of innings only should have been resolved behind closed doors without hurting Harvey’s reputation and causing a distraction for us and the team.
In terms of his actual workload in the regular season, Harvey is close to what it would have been, maybe even the same without the controversy. The key – which has been the key from the start – is Harvey taking his turn like a traditional Mets ace in the play-offs.
Hey Bryce, where’s your ring?
I wonder what he thinks of Scherzer now. I like Harper. I prefer to pick on the 2007 Philly who tried to channel Jimmy Rollins.
washingtonpost.com/news/dc-sports-bog/wp/2015/05/06/jayson-werth-says-the-nats-are-still-the-team-to-beat-in-the-national-league/
“We know who we are. We know our identity. We are the team to beat in the National League. Everybody knows it. We know it. It’s just how it is. It doesn’t change anything.”
espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/108214/nats-jayson-werth-its-our-division-to-lose
“I think it’s a matter of time really. We’re a great second-half team. … Half our team has been hurt all year. That’s the reality of it. When we all get back, we’re right there, in first place. We’re a game out now. But I think going forward we can get all back healthy and get rolling and it’s our division to lose.”
Against lefty Lamb, Mets are using what looks to be a preview of the Kershaw-hitting line-up. Interesting that Cuddyer is in LF instead of Lagares in CF and possibly Cuddyer at 1B. Is this a hint that Lagares will be odd man out on the NLDS roster? I hope Uribe’s RHB and play-off track record will be ready in time for Kershaw.
Curtis Granderson, RF
David Wright, 3B
Yoenis Cespedes, CF
Daniel Murphy, 2B
Travis d’Arnaud, C
Lucas Duda, 1B
Michael Cuddyer, LF
Wilmer Flores, SS
—
Matt Harvey, RHP
8 playoff appearances out of 54…we have to work on that. Two championships out of 53 is not too bad…it’s almost exactly what you would expect if winning were just random. Three out of 54 and we are on a roll.
One thing I remember from the 2000 and 2006 playoff runs is a distinct lack of sleep during the month of October. Looking forward to getting that again!
After the Mets steamroll the overrated Dodgers and the Cardinals beat the Cubs or Pie Tins, we avenge 2006 forever. Anyone who doubts that might as well get the f*ck out right now! You GOTTA believe this is baseball like it OUGHTA BE because the MAGIC IS BACK!!!!!!!!!
Magic Number: 0!!!
How sweet it is, and how appropriate that David hit the HR in the ninth that put it out of reach! :)
All that’s missing is “The View from the Balcony,” by Bill Gallo, with Yogi, Gil, and Casey looking down upon TC and the Mets, and saying, “Ya Done Splendid, Kid.”
My grandfather Sam, an old Dodger fan from Brooklyn, who watched every Mets game from the beginning on his black and white tv, is in heaven lighting up his Corona Chica with a big smile on his face…