Just Mets

The Mets have lost four of their last five games to the Pirates and Orioles, but have maintained a four game lead over the Nationals, who enter play on Friday with a 60-60 record.

Despite the Mets drastic turnaround since July 5 when they trailed Washington by 4 1/2 games in the division, Tyler Clippard is not satisfied with where the Mets are currently situated with their lead over their division rival.

“We could easily be up seven games on them right now,” Clippard told Mike Puma of the New York Post. “It’s just we have lost a few of these tight ones as of late. We’re playing very good baseball and the confidence has never been higher. I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t expand the lead.”

The Mets were swept by the Pirates last weekend at home, at the same time the Nationals were swept by the Giants in San Francisco.

The Mets did play two very good games against the Pirates in which they lost in extra innings, but to Clippard’s point, very good losses are still losses. With a little bit better execution, the Mets would be up six or seven games coming into play today, rather than four which, while still good, could be a little bit better.

Indeed, the Mets missed a golden opportunity to pad their lead, despite the level difficulty of their opponents over the last week.

The Mets and Nationals have 42 games left in the regular season. The club’s magic number to clinch the National League East stands at 39.

Assuming there is no tiebreaker and the Mets go 21-21 the rest of the way, the Nationals would have to go 26-16 to overtake the Mets over the final 42 games of the year.

The Mets and Nationals have six games left against each other.