When the Mets left for their 10-game west coast road trip they held a commanding 10.5-game lead in the NL East.
However, after Saturday’s loss to the Angels that lead has shrunk to 5.5 games.
A 10-plus game lead in a division is difficult to maintain, especially so early in the season, but a trip out West against the Dodgers, Padres and Angels, who are all playoff contenders -- yes, even the Angels -- has proven that the Mets have not run away with the NL East as many fans have hoped.
Couple the tough competition with the Atlanta Braves stringing together 10 wins in a row and it’s understandable how the Mets' lead has been cut in half. Even the Philadelphia Phillies have won nine in a row -- all after the firing of manager Joe Girardi -- to cut the Mets’ lead over them to eight games.
With past Mets collapses it’s easy to fall into the “here we go again” trap, but this year is different and a big part of that is the calming force of manager Buck Showalter who continues to look at the macro, not the micro.
“The sky isn’t falling. It’s only raining,” Showalter said after Saturday’s game via MLB.com.
“I haven’t looked at the standings since we left New York,” Showalter added. “All that stuff, there’s nothing we can do about it, right? When you look at how good those [NL East] teams are, it’s kind of obvious at some point, they’re going to get going.”
The team chasing the Mets has also benefited from their schedule early this season. The Braves' current win streak has come against the Diamondbacks, Rockies, Athletics and Pirates, all sub-.500 teams.
According to ESPN's strength-of-schedule, the Mets entered Saturday having the fourth-hardest schedule of any team. The Braves ranked at 19.
The Mets can’t control how other teams play or their schedule, but the players in the locker room are taking a page out of Buck’s playbook, looking at the “big picture” and focusing on what they can control, their play.
“I think we pay attention to the way we play here,” Carlos Carrasco said when asked about the team's division lead after his loss Saturday. “We just take care of how we’re playing here. We don’t try to think about those games. We’re just going to continue to play hard, and that’s it.”
And play hard is what the Mets have done all season so far. It was unlikely that the Mets would come out of their current road trip with an 8-2 or 7-3 record considering their opponents, but a win Sunday would put them at 5-5 and the team and fans should see the positive in that.
The Mets won’t see much of a reprieve when they return to Queens on Tuesday, however. The Milwaukee Brewers, who are also in playoff contention, will come into town, but if the Mets are serious about competing in the playoffs, these early-season tests are necessary.