Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’d like to thank the Mets for beating the Orioles twice this week and helping the Yankees move back into first place.
In today’s SI:AM:
🏴☠️ Bucs camp report
🏴 Lucy Bronze’s return to England
🏈 A college football rarity
Good vibes in Queens
Back in June, the New York Mets appeared destined for another lost season. After a 4–2 loss to the Miami Marlins on June 11, the Mets dropped to 28–37 on the year, 17.5 games behind first place in the NL East. Fangraphs’ playoff odds put their chances of making the postseason at 12.1%, third-lowest in the National League.
If this was a Hollywood script, now is when I would say that the Mets have soared since their slow start and surged into first place. That isn’t the case. The Mets have improved, although not dramatically so. They’re 66–61 and the Fangraphs playoff odds now give them a 25.2% chance to play in October. But even if the Mets don’t end up securing a wild card spot, they’re at least having fun chasing one.
New York took two out of three games against the Baltimore Orioles in Queens this week with both victories coming on walk-off homers that produced two of the most memorable moments of this MLB season. The first was Francisco Alvarez’s shot on Monday night which he punctuated with an instantly iconic celebration. Then, on Wednesday, it was Jesse Winker’s turn. He took a knee-high fastball from Seranthony Domínguez and sent it over the wall in left-center.
Both homers had everything you could want from a game-winning play: a joyous celebration from the hitter, a tremendous call from the broadcast team and an electrifying reaction from the home crowd. The Mets may still have a hill to climb—their win and the Atlanta Braves’ loss brought New York to within 1.5 games of the final NL wild card spot—but the fact that they’ve still got a chance makes moments like this week’s possible. The Mets and their fans have just enough hope of making a run to the postseason that they were able to get nearly 33,000 fans out to the ballpark on a Wednesday afternoon. And they were rewarded with a dramatic win for the ages.
It’s been a weird few years for the Mets. They won 101 games in 2022, the second year with billionaire Steve Cohen in charge, but lost the division tiebreaker to the Braves after being swept in Atlanta in the final week of the season and then lost in the wild card series to an 89-win San Diego Padres team. The Mets followed that season up by acting aggressively in the free agent market, running up a record $319.5 million payroll, only to crash and burn so spectacularly that they dumped several key players at the trade deadline. They finished with a 75–87 record. There was no big free-agent spending spree this winter, and so it appeared the Mets wouldn’t make a serious run at the postseason in ’24. Their slow start only reinforced that notion.
But here they are, having gone 38–24 in their 62 games to get back in the playoff hunt. There’s still plenty of work to do, though. The NL wild card race is a tight one. The Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks are currently tied for the first two spots at 72–56. The Braves hold the third and final spot at 67–59. Then it’s the Mets 1.5 games back and the San Francisco Giants 3.5 games back. The St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds are also within spitting distance.
The next week is going to be crucial for the Mets’ playoff hopes. They begin a 10-game road trip Thursday night that includes seven games against the two teams at the top of the wild card standings, the Padres and Diamondbacks. They’ll also have an opportunity to bank some wins in a three-game set against the lowly Chicago White Sox. By the time they come back to New York on Labor Day, the playoff picture will be a lot clearer.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Albert Breer’s training camp tour continued with a trip to see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
- Clare Brennan spoke with English soccer star Lucy Bronze about her return to club soccer in her home country.
- Nick Selbe wrote about USC quarterback Miller Moss, who won the starting job after backing up Caleb Williams for two years. In today’s college football landscape, with players entering the transfer portal in search of increased playing time, players like Moss are a rarity.
- Kirk Herbstreit was Jimmy Traina’s guest on the latest episode of the SI Media podcast.
- Rich Louis thinks these five players have tough enough schedules that you should avoid taking them in your fantasy football draft.
- Joey Votto has retired after spending this season playing for the Triple A affiliate of his hometown Blue Jays.
- Hall of Fame former NBA player and coach Al Attles has died.
The top five…
… things I saw yesterday:
5. The meme the Mets put on the scoreboard after their win over the Orioles.
4. Nolan Arenado’s walk-off grand slam for the Cardinals. There weren’t that many people there to see it, though. The attendance at Busch Stadium was just 29,850, the first time in the stadium’s history that fewer than 30,000 fans showed up (excluding the pandemic season).
3. The reception that Royals World Series hero Johnny Cueto got from the fans in Kansas City after leaving his debut start with the Angels.
2. Tina Charles’s 12 points to move into second place on the WNBA’s all-time scoring list.
1. Aaron Judge’s two homers against the Guardians. He now has 47 on the year and is on pace to hit 60 for the second time in his career.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | The Mets Are Making It Interesting.
