If any division-leading team was primed for a September collapse, it was the Mets. They had a bunch of things working against them: the drama surrounding Matt Harvey and his innings limit, a young pitching staff that could tire down the stretch, and a history of gut-punching September finishes (like 2007 and 2008) that seemed to hover over the team’s success.
But the Mets look to be as close to a lock for the playoffs as any team in baseball, thanks to one reason: the Washington Nationals.
Okay, the Nats aren’t the only reason the Mets are likely going to win their first division title since 2006. But Washington certainly isn’t helping their own cause with the way they’ve played lately. The Mets were ripe for the picking, and the Nats couldn’t take advantage.
Consider the recent three game sweep the Mets laid on the Nationals earlier this week. In every game, the Nats held a late lead and blew it. Matt Williams made a number of baffling decisions (something of a trend), the most glaring being his decision to bunt with Anthony Rendon in an extra inning game. The bullpen totally collapsed again, culminating in a blown six-run lead in the second game of the series. And then the Nats’ bats went silent for too long in the third game, resulting in the sweep and a seven game deficit in the standings.
So instead of holding just a one game lead with the rest of the season looming, the Mets are now quite comfortably ahead of the Nats. While they can’t afford to take it easy the rest of the way – bigger leads have been blown in September – they can take other steps to ensure they’re at full strength for when the playoffs begin. Whether that means resting some of their young starters like Jacob deGrom or Noah Syndergaard, or shutting Harvey down until the last week of the season, the Mets have a nice enough cushion to make the moves they feel are necessary.
That’s a far cry from where the Mets were just a few days ago, when they showed signs of slowing down and put themselves within arms’ length of the Nats. The Harvey mess had the potential to bury them, especially if Washington would’ve gained ground the past few days. Imagine the Mets trying to hold off the hard charging Nationals without their ace? Or having to skip the starts of their other dominant starters because of fatigue with the second place team just a game behind them? September had the potential for disaster the likes of which Mets fans haven’t seen since that infamous ’07 collapse.
Instead, in large part due to the Nationals, New York is sitting pretty with just three and a half weeks left in the season. There’s still the potential for collapse, but it sure seems like Washington is in the rearview mirror after this past week’s series. The Mets still need a sense of urgency, but it’s not nearly as urgent as it could have been.
Another Mets September collapse? Not if the Nationals can help it.
