Mets are basically in the playoffs even before October

The Mets are in the midst of a best-of-three-weeks trying to fight into a best-of-three, wild card series. They are playing as close to playoff games as exist in September to attempt to play the real things come October.

And they are performing like a team with purpose and excellence toward the goal. They found out a few hours before Saturday’s game that Jeff McNeil had suffered a small wrist fracture and was done for the regular season .

Buck Showalter often said the season does not stop to allow you to solve your problems — that no one is going to feel bad for you. And his Mets managerial successor, Carlos Mendoza, noted how much McNeil’s offensive revival in the second half had helped, but also: “Every team has injuries and guys will continue to have to step up.”

So Jose Iglesias — on his first day as the regular second baseman — did. His arrival along with Luis Torrens at the end of May helped transform the Mets defense from liability to asset as this season has progressed. As if to emphasize the point, Iglesias and Francisco Lindor combined in the second and third innings on double plays that were balletic — that were the baseball version of Magic Johnson or Jason Kidd orchestrating picturesque fast breaks.

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The first one, in particular, which began with Iglesias sliding left to snag a Jonathan India grounder before spinning right to feed Lindor, who handled a low-ish throw across the bag before pegging to first was artistry.

“That sets the energy for the tone of the game,” Bader said of the duo of twin-killings.

Jose Quintana is a contact-heavy starter who needs impeccable glovework behind him, and got it early amid traffic. It saved him runs and pitches, which allowed him to still be around in the seventh inning. It kept the Reds off the scoreboard long enough for the Mets to weather five one-hit shutout innings from Cincinnati opener Jakob Junis. The Mets struck for four sixth-inning runs en route to a 4-0 victory that gave them their first nine-game winning streak since April 2018.

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The only two other times they had a nine-game winning streak that included September games was doing it twice in 1969 to rally to their first-ever playoff spot and ultimately championship. Now, there is a growin’ amazin’ sense of possibility around this club.

The Mets began this tear four games behind Atlanta for the final NL wild-card and with a 13.1 percent playoff chance (Fangraphs). They are now one game ahead of the Braves and just one-half game behind the Diamondbacks for the second wild card — with the wild card-leading Padres still in hailing distance.

“I hate to be scoreboard watching this early in the month, but every game is gonna kind of matter down the stretch,” said Phil Maton, who has been in the playoffs three of the last four seasons. “You don’t want to get to that last series of the year and be like, ‘Man, if we could have won a game here or there, we’d be in a different spot.’”

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The Mets are not going to win out, but they have now won enough where “we pretty much are, in a way (in the playoffs now),” said Francisco Lindor, whose 28 postseason games are second among current Mets to J.D. Martinez’s 33. “It is not exactly the same vibes as the playoffs, where you get that moment at the beginning to start fresh. But we are in that position where every day, every game, every inning matters and that is playoff baseball.”

It is why everything is so sensitive, from losing McNeil to eyeing Kodai Senga (calf), who threw another bullpen Saturday. He is eligible to return from the 60-day injured list on Sept. 25, which is the middle of a three-game set in Atlanta that feels like a collision course for this year and within the Mets’ tortured history against the Braves. The Mets are hoping Senga can serve as a three- or four-inning opener in the waning days of the regular season and then perhaps in a playoff series.

But, again — as much as that Braves series lurks — the Mets have business from here to there. Not long ago, the NL wild-card race was a .500-ish snarl. But pretenders like the Reds fell away and strong belief that this season would be like last when two 84-win teams (Arizona, Miami) made the playoffs has evaporated. It might take 90 wins to be even the third wild card.

“It’s four teams kind of in a wild card clump,” Maton said. “It is not the absolute do or die every night, but it is getting pretty close. Every bit of leverage you can get going down the stretch is pretty important. I hate to pinpoint a series, but obviously that Atlanta series (next to last of the year) is looming and is going to be a huge series for us and so it is important for us to be rolling with some momentum going into that series.”

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