With the 2025 MLB regular season on its last legs, every game counts for those in the playoff hunt. This is especially the case for the New York Mets, a team that, on Monday, entered a four-game series against NL East leader Philadelphia Phillies. The Mets were already seven games behind the Phillies in the standings prior to their series-opening contest, which is a huge deficit with to make up with 19 games remaining in the season.
And now, the NL East crown appears to be even more unattainable for the Mets in the aftermath of their 1-0 defeat to the Phillies. Philly's lead is up to eight games now with 18 games remaining, and it would take a major collapse from the Phillies for the Mets to somehow end up with the division title.
Be that as it may, Mets first baseman Pete Alonso is not sweating anything. After all, if the season were to end today, they would be in the NL Wild Card round to face the Los Angeles Dodgers; and as anyone would attest to, the MLB playoffs might be the biggest crapshoot in North American professional sports.
“I feel great. If the season were to end today, we’ve got a chance to roll the dice in the playoffs. As years in the past have shown, wherever you start out doesn’t really mean much,” Alonso said, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.
Indeed, the 2024 Mets proved that winning the division isn't all that important; getting into the playoffs is. They just made it last year with an 89-73 record, and they ended up being the team to push the Dodgers to their limit in the NLCS.
Mets look to save their best baseball for when it matters the most
If there's anything that matters in the playoff picture, it might be about getting a bye to the NLDS. But that seems to be out of the Mets' reach anyway, so what matters now is that they win enough ballgames to hold the San Francisco Giants, the team below them in the Wild Card picture, at bay, both literally and figuratively. Alonso believes that they certainly have the talent to do so.
“Have we played our best baseball? No. I know our ceiling is sky-high, but you can look at it two ways. You can look at it as, ‘OK, we haven’t played our best baseball up to this point.’ Or you can look at it as, ‘The talent in this room is undeniable.'” Alonso added.
