Mets giving fans unwelcome flashbacks to shortcomings of old

New York Mets center fielder Brandon Nimmo. (Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports)

New York Mets center fielder Brandon Nimmo. (Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports)

NFL Week 1 2022: Odds for each game by Alicia de Artola

The New York Mets have almost completely squandered their NL lead over the Braves with three inexplicable losses to terrible teams.

What on earth is going on with the Mets? Well, besides being quintessentially Mets-y.

New York’s lead over the Braves in the division has all but evaporated after three straight losses to bottom-of-the-barrel teams.

Coming off a 2-1 series win over the Dodgers, the Mets had to feel pretty good. Then they lost two of three to the Nationals and fell again on Tuesday night to the Pirates.

They are the first team since 1938 to be more than 35 games above .500 and lose three straight-games against teams that are more than 35 games under .500, per ESPN Stats & Info.

The Mets have let the Braves back into the NL East race

Mets fans have had ample reason to buy into this team but their faith is continually undercut by stretches like this.

These aren’t just losses. They’re blowouts. The Nationals beat NY 7-1 in each of the last two games of the series. The Pirates beat them 8-2.

The most frustrating part of this Mets situation is that they’ve literally been great all year yet the first bad stretch they have they’re about to lose the division lead. Literally been as great as you could’ve hoped all year but the Braves have been right there with us

— anthony (@HoodieAlonso) September 7, 2022

This Mets team is going to be to win somewhere between 95-102 games and they’re going to make sure we’re absolutely miserable as they do it.

— Vas Drimalitis (@vasdrimalitis) September 7, 2022

This should have been an easy run to October. The Mets had a significantly easier strength of schedule in the final month than the Braves. Yet they’ve dropped games against the worst opponents. Atlanta’s strong form is one thing. Making it easier for them is the problem.

Braves fans are laughing at New York right now and they’re totally in their rights to do so.

There’s still time to buckle down and make sure the division isn’t lost. New York built the lead they did by taking care of business against the dregs of the league. They need toget back to that.

It would just be the most Mets thing ever to end up in the Wildcard after controlling the NL East for most of the season.