Written by Jon Tayler at SI.com
With just two weeks left in the 2016 season, these are the three teams left standing in the National League wild-card race.
The Mets, who just lost Jacob deGrom for the rest of the year and whose rotation now features rookies Seth Lugo, Robert Gsellman and (probably) Gabriel Ynoa;
The Cardinals, who have just one qualified starter—Carlos Martinez—with an ERA+ of league average or better;
The Giants, who finished the first half with the best record in baseball (57–33) and who have gone an incomprehensible 22–37 since the All-Star break.
Two of those teams will make the playoffs.
Do any of them deserve that postseason trip? The Mets, at least, have made an effort in the second half despite losing multiple starters to injury throughout the season. Along with deGrom, the Mets have been without Matt Harvey for the entire second half and without Steven Matz since Aug. 14. Every member of the starting infield has missed time, with David Wright and Neil Walker both done for the year and Lucas Duda only just now returning from a back injury that has limited him to 39 games and sidelined him since May 20. In their stead has been a cast of unlikely saviors: the likes of Lugo and Gsellman in the rotation; T.J. Rivera and James Loney and Jose Reyes taking important at-bats down the stretch.
Despite that motley crew (the replace-Mets, if you will), New York has kept its head above water. The Mets are just 33–28 since the All-Star break but have won 11 of their 16 games in September, including a six-game winning streak that helped pull them ahead of the Giants and Cardinals to take over first place in the wild card. But a lot of New York’s success has come thanks to the schedule: Of those 16 games this month, only six have come against a team above .500—the NL East-leading Nationals. In essence, the Mets have fattened up on the league’s bottom feeders, and they’ll get to do so for the rest of the season: After completing this weekend’s three-game sweep of the hapless Twins, New York finishes the year with 13 games against the Braves, Phillies and Marlins, all under .500.
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