The Mets took care of business this week, sweeping the stripped-for-parts Nationals to head into the weekend with a three-game winning streak and just a half-game deficit in the NL East.
Now, the real work begins.
Over the next 13 games, starting on Friday night, New York will solely play the Giants and Dodgers, two of the best in baseball, in a stretch that could sink the Mets season or prove that they belong amongst playoff contenders.
"They're gonna be very playoff-like," Brandon Nimmo said. "If you wanna be a playoff team, you have to beat some other playoff teams. These two teams are very good, they obviously have very good records and very long track records of success, so these next few series will be good tests of playoff baseball."
New York's playoff odds currently sit at just over 12 percent, per Baseball Reference, and it will take a continued offensive burst like the last three games to make sure that number doesn't plummet against top competition. The challenging gauntlet begins with three against the Dodgers at Citi Field this weekend, and four more against them on the road starting on Aug. 19.
The Mets, who have struggled offensively as a group for much of the season, will see both Walker Buehler and Max Scherzer this weekend.
"The Dodgers are gonna come in, they're one of the best teams in the league," manager Luis Rojas said. "Everyone knows that. They're the champs right now, they have a lot of talent, and we need to do everything we did this series…I'm excited about the series we just played, and now get ready to play the Dodgers [Friday]."
The Mets have shown improvement at the plate of late, as both Nimmo and Pete Alonso enjoyed a strong series against Washington, while Michael Conforto has finally been showing signs of life since the calendar flipped to August. But of course, the next two weeks will be a much better measuring stick to see exactly where the bats are at.
"It's gonna be a fun series for us," Alonso said. "There's gonna be a lot of great talent that we're gonna be playing against, not just for these next two weeks, but the rest of the year."
The Giants, owners of the best record in baseball, could be an even greater obstacle, one that would be a big boost to New York's playoff chances if they could step up to the challenge. After this daunting 13-game stretch, the team's next 14 games are against the Nationals and Marlins, an opportunity to solidify a playoff spot.
But they will have to survive this stretch first.
"This is a huge test for us," Alonso said. "There's a lot of potential. Who are we gonna face in the playoffs, who's gonna win, who's gonna lose. Over this stretch, we have a lot of high-quality teams we're gonna play…this is a show-me stretch. What are we made of?"
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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