The Mets understand their dream of fragile playoff play as the Cubs emerge



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Splashing water is certainly helpful, but at some point it can sink or swim.

The Mets may have reached this point in their calendar, which tells them whether they are swimmers or swimmers. Three games against the Cubs at Citi Field, which will start Tuesday night, will have all the attributes of a playoff series, even though visiting players hold a decisive advantage: even if they are swept, they will remain very alive in this wild card NL. race.

But the Mets do not have such a safety net. If last weekend's performances are repeated and players are swept three times to end the match, the chances of Mets in the post-season could be reduced to nothing as soon as they arrive in Philadelphia on Friday.

The Mets dragged the Cubs by two games for the second wildcard NHL qualifying, with the Phillies and Brewers also chasing. And the Mets are well aware of the landscape.

"You can not help but watch," said Michael Conforto. "There's a group of guys watching, seeing what's going on, but we all remember that if we take care of business here, we will not have to worry about it. We can not control everything that happens, so we can get help or not. You can not worry about anyone else.

The Mets have been gangbusters in their last three games against the AL class leaders in the Citi Field game. The run started on Friday with a 14-race defeat to the Braves, preceding a shaky Zack Wheeler performance and a Dallas Keuchel loss in the series final.

He left the Mets at .500 on the homestand and fortunately the Cubs, Phillies and Brewers have done little to improve their own situation lately. The Cubs (69-61) have just lost three straight games against Washington and barely have the atmosphere of the ivy-covered wallbangers who won the World Series in 2016. But that could have been obvious for the Mets in June, when They separated Series of parts with the Cubs to Wrigley Field.

"We played well in Chicago, there were some failures that prevented us from winning the whole series, but we are confident," said Davis. "It's only a small retarder, which is happening right now."

The implosion of the eighth round of Seth Lugo in the last game of this series sent the Mets spiral: After the game, manager Mickey Callaway insulted a journalist before Jason Vargas was separated by a scribe teammate. The Mets followed with four consecutive defeats in Philadelphia, with the manager directly responsible in three of them.

"It was a difficult stage for us and we felt we were starting to build momentum in this area. [Cubs] The series and some mistakes beat us late in the game and we were not able to return to the competition, "said Conforto. "We just have to play the kind of baseball we played against the Indians. We did not wear bats against the Braves. We have been at a stroke of a different result in every game, but it's not like we've been outmatched in this series. We were in each of them. We played hard and did not do enough to win. "

Marcus Stroman is scheduled for Tuesday, followed by Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom. The Cubs have Yu Darvish, Kyle Hendricks and Jon Lester lined up for the series.

"It's good for us, as a young group, to find ourselves in these situations, these big games," Davis said. "A lot of energy, but it's good for us."

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