So three weeks ago, I said the Mets had an important stretch coming up. My hope for them was to go 15-7 over the 22 games, all but two were against NL East opponents. They missed my target by two games, which isn’t bad, and went 13-9 to emerge 15-14, 2 1/2 games behing the division-leading Braves. Had they followed my plan, they might be half a game out — or half a game up in the division lead. Stupid Mets.
But hey, they’re in it (and so are the Nationals! Philly, not so much at the moment) and they should be able to take four of six on this Midwest swing to Milwaukee and Chicago before coming home for a big nine-game homestand against St. Louis, Cincinnati and the Yankees.