One more long road trip for the Mets, who have thrived away from home

A lot of things can go wrong on the road.

The late-night arrivals, the unfamiliar surroundings, the reliance on hotel dining and beds. A bad combination of those things can leave any person feeling a bit off, especially baseball players who are notorious creatures of habits. In the olden days, the road is often where players got into trouble too, though those days are mostly over as smartphones and social media have forced athletes to button up their public behavior.

The 2022 Mets, who have been pretty good at everything, have not had many issues on the road though. As they embark this week for their final two-city road trip of the year — they still have three games in Atlanta left, so this isn’t the last time they’ll board a plane — the Mets are 43-29 away from Citi Field. Heading to Milwaukee and Oakland in September certainly qualifies as a strange schedule quirk for the Mets, but if their previous 72 road games are any indication, Buck Showalter and his boys will not be fazed. Only the untouchable Dodgers (52-26) have a better road record than the Mets.

Winning at any and every location is a great sign of a team’s postseason aptitude, and the Mets have fared well in the other National League contenders’ ballparks. They’ve won series in Atlanta, Philadelphia and St. Louis and split their four games at Dodger Stadium. The Padres are the only serious NL squad who protected their house against the Mets, winning two of their three games in San Diego while outscoring the Mets 25-13 in the series.

For the Mets, hitting has been less of a chore on the road too. They do everything at the plate slightly better when free of Citi Field’s pitcher-friendly confines. At home, the Mets have a .252/.330/.393 slash line in 76 games compared to .264/.333/.425 in 72 games everywhere else. Unsurprisingly then, their pitchers’ ERA rises by almost a full run on the road, shooting up from 3.08 to 4.02.

Like with a player who gets traded to a different organization, sometimes a change of scenery is needed to get out of a rut. After the Mets’ recent homestand that just seemed to be missing, something — they rebounded after getting swept by the Cubs to then sweep the Pirates, but the confluence of cooler weather, kids being back in school, and three weekday games against a bad team made for a slightly deadened environment than we’re used to seeing in Flushing this year — one final road trip might be exactly what they need to put the battery in their back.

After two and a half weeks exclusively facing teams that were trying to play spoiler, the Mets will now get a chance to do that themselves, as a sweep in Milwaukee could effectively kill the Brewers’ playoff aspirations. On top of that, any win in Milwaukee clinches at least a wild card berth for the Mets, though they’ll obviously keep trucking ahead in pursuit of a National League East title after that.

As motivated as the Mets should be for every game, that might add a little juice to the next three games, and any little edge is useful 148 games into a season. Players are typically much looser on the road too, especially in central or western cities where fewer traveling media members are present, and the fact that they get Max Scherzer back for Monday’s game could take another weight off their shoulders. If Scherzer shoves and the Mets can secure a win in game one, the rest of the road trip suddenly takes on a much more celebratory vibe.

Following the trio of games in Milwaukee, the Mets get a look at the Oakland Athletics, who are playing for pride and draft order. The A’s have the worst record in the American League, and while their players will still be invested, losing is actually better for the franchise. Major League Baseball has a draft lottery now for the first time, so finishing with the worst record in the league does not guarantee the first pick anymore.

Each of the three worst teams get equal 16.5% odds of receiving the No. 1 pick, and there’s six teams (Oakland, plus Washington, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Kansas City and Cincinnati) that could realistically end up in those spots. In other words, the Mets’ week of games is against a team fighting for their playoff life and a team that helps both parties by losing. Both situations should breed some desire to take care of business.

Stacking as many wins as possible also takes some tension away from the final boss of road games: the Sept. 30-Oct. 2 faceoff in Atlanta. Everything about the way this season has played out points to that series deciding the NL East, but if the Mets can find a way to go 5-1 or even 6-0 in Milwaukee and Oakland, they’ll be in much better standing when those dates roll around.

Until then, one more week of travel ball awaits the Mets, who have been extremely comfortable in that setting all year.

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from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3HvWVL8