The Mets finally returned to baseball in Milwaukee on Friday night but all the buzz was still about the back-to-back rainouts in Atlanta and the possibility of a doubleheader on Monday to potentially decide their playoff fate.
It is certainly a unique, and less-than-ideal scenario, especially with the start of the playoffs currently slated for Tuesday with no plans, as of Friday night, to change that.
“The best thing we can do is focus on tonight,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns told reporters prior to the game. “We have a tough game ahead of us tonight. These are really important games this time of year and we can’t really worry about Monday at this point. Whenever we finish the game on Sunday they’ll tell us where we need to go if we need to go, and we’ll take it from there.”
The decision to schedule a doubleheader on Monday also caught some backlash from fans and media as the league and Braves knew the storm was headed toward Atlanta but did not make any prior adjustments to the schedule.
“I don’t know what the right thing would have been,” Stearns said. “No one wants to play a doubleheader on Monday. The Braves didn’t want that outcome, MLB didn’t want that outcome and certainly, we didn’t want that outcome. It’s easy in retrospect to say we could’ve done things differently to get there. It’s also tough in the moment to predict what exactly the weather is going to do and there’s a whole host of considerations everyone is working through to try and make the best decision possible.”
The uncertainty also throws the pitching situation into question. The Mets have not announced their starters for the rest of the series, as they go day by day depending on what the playoff circumstances are after each game.
"I think it’s the combination of what the matchups, where the race is, how different guys are recovering from their prior starts,” Stearns said. “ So, we’re just going to circle up after each game and make a decision.”
It is possible the Mets do not need to play the doubleheader on Monday if they can clinch a spot over the weekend. The Mets entered Friday tied with the Diamondbacks for the final two wild card spots and a game ahead of the Braves.
It’s still not clear under what circumstances those games would not be played because even if the Mets clinch, the Braves could be fighting for a spot over the Diamondbacks or the games could be needed for seeding purposes.
“We’ve had a lot of weird stuff this season, we just keep playing,” Stearns said. “I think you guys are making a bigger deal of this than anyone in [the clubhouse] is. I think everyone in there is looking forward to playing baseball tonight. We haven’t played a lot in the last week. It’s the time of year you really want to play baseball. So hopefully we play a good game tonight and we do it again tomorrow and if we have to fly to Atlanta on Monday, we fly to Atlanta.”