Can Mets maintain playoff position after surging past Braves? Three things to know about down-to-the-wire race

The Mets currently hold the third and final National League wild-card spot

By Dayn Perry Sep 8, 2024 at 11:24 am ET• 6 min read

Buoyed by a strong record since over the last 100 days or so and more recently an ongoing nine-game win streak, the New York Mets are back in playoff position for the first time in a long time. 

At 78-64, the Mets hold a narrow one-game lead over the rival Atlanta Braves for the third and final wild-card spot in the National League. That's the slimmest of margins, but given the late hour – the Mets and Braves each have 20 games remaining in the regular season – it's still quite notable. At this critical juncture, the question for the Mets, their partisans, and those thunderously opposing their efforts is: will they keep it up?

Answering such a question is difficult given the those above-noted "slimmest of margins" but we can take a look at a handful of considerations for the Mets as they try to run down a playoff spot under first-year manager Carlos Mendoza. 

They've been a different team since early June

The 2024 Mets reached their low watermark on June 2, when a 5-4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks dropped them to 11 games under .500. They were just two months into the six-month regular season, but that's a deep hole in any context. However, they got to work promptly with a road sweep of the Washington Nationals, and ever since the Mets have been one of MLB's best teams.