NL Wild Card Standings: Mets have the easiest remaining schedule in the league

Nobody has a tougher remaining schedule in MLB than the Tampa Bay Rays whose remaining opponents have a combined .534 winning percentage. Those poor Miami Marlins don’t have it much easier either. The second-toughest of all with a .513 winning percentage of remaining opponents, they’ll get battered even more by the end of it all. Meanwhile, the New York Mets have one of the easiest in baseball with the lowest combined winning percentage of anyone with a shot at the NL Wild Card.

A .488 winning percentage is what lies ahead for the Mets. Only the Seattle Mariners at .483 and Los Angeles Angels at .464 have it easier. Their 20 games left against the Oakland Athletics and Texas Rangers might seem simple but those two teams are surely eager to play the Angels just as much.

For the Mets, a lot of the tough games have already been played. There are still some tough opponents, but with 84 games left—the most in MLB—a shot at the NL Wild Card is right there for them to take.

The tough part of the Mets schedule

The Mets still play the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves 7 more times each. That’s 14 games that in any situation would be tough for both clubs. A 7-7 record from those 14 games would be a victory.

We’ll get to see the Mets take on the young and powerful Baltimore Orioles for 3 games. Another pair against the New York Yankees, this time in the Bronx, is coming up, too.

The Mets finish the year with three against the Milwaukee Brewers and have three others against the Minnesota Twins. Those are their five toughest opponents left. We just saw them beat the Yankees. The Phillies and Braves are tough and yet those NL East fights tend to go in either direction.

The biggest jabronis left on the Mets schedule

On the other side of the ledger, the Mets get to play the Chicago White Sox and Oakland Athletics three times each. The Los Angeles Angels and surprisingly pitiful Toronto Blue Jays remain on the schedule for a trio of games, too. Those four interleague series alone should be able to give the Mets a boost as long as they don’t play down to the opponent.

A total of 13 games against the Colorado Rockies and Miami Marlins will allow the Mets to feast further. They have yet to play the Rockies this year which’ll give them a chance to fatten up. The 7 remaining against the Marlins should also be a big help in capturing a Wild Card spot.

Important to note, some of the competition for those last Wild Card spots behind the Braves have rough schedules. The Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, Washington Nationals, Chicago Cubs, and Arizona Diamondbacks have the third through seventh toughest remaining schedules. Those clubs all have to deal with several division leaders. A playoff push is right there for the Mets. They came out on the other side of a tough early schedule.

This article was originally published on risingapple.com as NL Wild Card Standings: Mets have the easiest remaining schedule in the league.