The Mets have six more games before the All-Star Break. It’d be great to see them hit it on a high note, and not coast against two bad teams in the Cubs and Phillies. (Yes, the Phillies count as a bad team. ) They’ve seemingly had a habit of playing down to their competition a bit this year.
They are currently six games above .500 at 43-37. They will not go into the All-Star Break with a losing record, but you’d like to see them finish the unofficial first half strong. Winning four of six would put them eight games over at 47-39. That should be the goal. The Mets have two starts by Jon Niese and one by everyone else, and Niese has been cruising for a while now. His 3.55 ERA is good for 24th of 62 qualifying NL pitchers, and a good .41 better than league average.
Ultimately the goal is to keep pace with the division leading Washington Nationals. They play on the road at San Francisco and Colorado. It’d be awesome if the Mets could gain a game on them to be within three of first place at the break. They’ll play the Nationals six times in the second half of July, as well as the Braves three times. As baseball pauses, it’d be nice to take stock of the Mets and see them within a broom’s length of first place.
