The NL Wild Card race, or call it a chase, is on.
The New York Mets are ahead of the field, as they've been all season, but the gap is closing. The Arizona Diamondbacks, San Francisco Giants and Cincinnati Reds are all charging hard.
Will the Mets let someone catch them?
Here's how it all stands entering play on Wednesday, Sept. 17, with the Mets holding onto the final spot in the wild card standings:
- Mets 78-73
- Diamondbacks 77-75 (1.5 GB)
- Reds 75-76 (3.0 GB)
- Giants 75-76 (7.0 GB)
The Mets, Reds and Giants all have 11 games left. The Diamondbacks have 10 games left.
Arizona just walked-off the Giants on Tuesday night to surge in front of them.
But the Mets finally had a breakthrough game, crushing Padres starter Michael King early to earn a resounding win.
Even with that, the Mets are just 2-8 in their last 10. They've opened the door for the teams below them.
The Diamondbacks are the hottest of the bunch. The Giants and Reds have both missed opportunities lately.
All that's for certain is that the closing stretch has the potential to be epic, unless the Mets finally right their ship.
But if New York keeps losing more often than winning, someone can catch them. It's just a question of who.
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