CHICAGO — Brandon Nimmo might be the human embodiment of a golden retriever, but for as upbeat as the Mets outfielder consistently is, he’s also realistic. A key team leader who helps set the tone in the clubhouse, Nimmo is remaining optimistic about the team’s chances to reach the postseason this week, but he also knows those chances are diminishing.
“It’s been happening right in front of our eyes,” Nimmo said Sunday after the Mets lost a series to the moribund Washington Nationals. “I can definitely believe it.”
The Mets, once considered a World Series contender, are outside of the playoff standings for the first time since April 5 as they enter a series against the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday. The Cincinnati Reds have an equal record (80-76), but own the tiebreaker against the Mets. The Arizona Diamondbacks, a game behind both teams, also owns the tiebreaker over the Mets.
It’s not an enviable position to be in with the Cubs and the Miami Marlins coming up this week, especially since the Mets play both teams on the road. Only four teams in the league have a worse road record than the Mets (31-44), the Pittsburgh Pirates, Colorado Rockies, Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox — four of the five last-place teams.
It’s a disaster of epically embarrassing proportions for a team with a $350 million payroll, yet the Mets are still confident they can steal that last postseason spot from the Reds or the Diamondbacks.
“We can turn it on in an instant,” Nimmo said.
There is nothing to indicate that the Mets are capable of turning it on quickly. The team has been exceptionally streaky all season, going from the best team in baseball until June, when they vacillated between looking like one of the worst teams in the league to world-beaters. They’ve been unable to stop long losing streaks, and they haven’t sustained a long winning streak since July.
But even when all of this is presented to them, they still remain optimistic about the upcoming week.
“No doubt, a tough couple losses there, and I think everybody here knows kind of where we’re at and what’s ahead of us,” said right-hander Clay Holmes. “But as a player, I think there’s still the opportunity to make something special happen. I think you have to go in this week with the mindset of, you’ve just got to leave it out there. I mean, who knows? You can’t try to control results, you’ve just got to go out there and play like how you play, and just leave it on the field.”
How, exactly, are they able to maintain this optimism? The fans are convinced it’s all a facade, a result of the organization telling them what to say. No team in the Mets’ position would openly admit to their doubt; admitting defeat with six games left would show a losing mentality. The team is adamant they are still capable of winning. It seems to be a genuine sentiment.
It’s the experience of last year’s playoff run that has the Mets convinced they can still pull it off, and the experience of the veterans in the clubhouse.
“I feel like veteran guys have kind of been in this situation before,” said left-hander Sean Manaea. “Maybe not the exact situation, but we’ve been in some precarious situations before, and the young guys have been stepping up. So I think a combination of that is good, and I think if anyone can do it’s us.”
However, last year the Mets had a solid pitching rotation in September. The most precarious situation is pitching, though the lineup can often go cold — and stay that way — just as quickly as it can get hot.
The Cubs were embarrassed over the weekend by the Reds, who jumped into the Wild Card standings by sweeping them at Great American Ballpark. The Marlins are continuing their time-honored tradition of playing spoilsport, pushing back ace Sandy Alcantara to Friday in an attempt to knock the Mets out of the race.
“We know we’re going to get good baseball,” Nimmo said. “The atmosphere is going to be great, we have to just feed off of it. and enjoy it because not everybody gets to be in this position.”
Should the Mets reach their goal and get into a Wild Card round, they’ll likely face the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team that knocked them out of the League Championship Series last fall en route to winning the World Series.
But the Dodgers are also proof that you can get creative with pitching in the playoffs. They beat a Yankees team with a full rotation by using relievers as bulk guys and starters who were so low on the depth chart they likely wouldn’t have pitched had it not been for all of the injuries to the rotation.
The mentality is to get in, and see what happens. But first, getting into the postseason is proving to be more of an uphill battle than anticipated.
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