The All-Star break might have come at an inopportune time for the Mets, but they have a serious opportunity to prove their resilience coming up.
After winning seven of their nine games immediately before the four-day hiatus, the Mets initially dropped two out of three games against the Marlins before salvaging a split with a 6-4 victory on Monday night at loanDepot park.
With Monday's win, the Mets improved to 51-48 — a half-game up on the Pirates for the final Wild Card spot in the National League.
July's final stretch will be a telling one for the Mets. It begins with the second installment of the Subway Series at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night, and leads into Major League Baseball's trade deadline on July 30.
"It's the same mindset: one day at a time," Carlos Mendoza told reporters on Monday. "Come to the ballpark, prepare, you go out and compete and worry about the task at hand. It's just day by day. We've got the Yankees tomorrow and then the same approach. We just got to continue to play well."
Here is where the Mets stand heading into the Subway Series:
Mets finally find a way to cash in
Before the break, the Mets' offense had been clicking, scoring five runs or more in 10 of their 14 games to open the month of July. They were averaging 5.1 runs per game.
After a sluggish start out of the break, there was some signs that the Mets were starting to regain their footing in the series finale. Francisco Lindor knocked his 18th and 19th home runs of the season while Jeff McNeil belted a three-run shot in the win.
For Lindor, despite a big week, the task remains the same.
"It's heavy on the front office. That's their job. Let them deal with that, let them make the decisions they've got to make," Lindor told reporters. "We're here to play the game the right way and hopefully we're in a position where we can help them make better decisions that are going to be not like last year."
In the beginning of their series against the Marlins, the offense had cooled off. In Friday night's 6-4 loss, McNeil accounted for three of the Mets' eight hits and drove in three of their four runs with a pair of home runs.
They used a supreme pitching performance by Luis Severino, who tossed six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts, and empty innings by Jose Butto, Dedniel Nunez and Edwin Diaz to grab a 1-0 win on Saturday despite leaving 10 runners on base. The Mets' lone run came on a groundout with the bases loaded.
The Mets left another nine runners stranded in Sunday's 4-2 defeat as the Marlins broke away with Jazz Chisholm's three-run home run off Christian Scott.
Mets' schedule gets tougher with Braves and Twins
The Mets and Yankees enter this version of the Subway Series hungry for different reasons.
The Mets are hoping to stay inside the NL playoff picture, while the Yankees (60-42) are 6-10 in the month of July and trying to stay within striking distance of the top spot in the AL East.
Last time the two teams squared off, the Mets delivered a pair of lopsided victories, outscoring the Yankees by a combined score of 21-9. The Yankees will send up their two top arms in Luis Gil and Gerrit Cole once again against their crosstown rivals.
Meanwhile, the Mets will counter with lefties Jose Quintana and Sean Manaea on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
After opening the month of July with five series against teams with losing records, the Mets close with three teams in the mix for playoff spots. They face the Braves (54-45) in a four-game series at home beginning Thursday before taking on the Twins (54-44) across three games to close the month.
When is Kodai Senga returning to Mets rotation?
One of the most highly-anticipated returns will come later this week as Kodai Senga is penciled in to return to the mound against the Braves on Friday night.
Senga has missed the opening four months of the season after suffering a shoulder capsule strain in the opening week of spring training. The right-hander's rehab was sidetracked after he dealt with nerve inflammation in his triceps.
When Senga is at his best, he is one of the top arms in the National League. Last season, he finished second in Rookie of the Year voting and seventh in NL Cy Young after amassing a 12-7 record with a 2.98 ERA and 202 strikeouts.
He had three strong rehab starts between High-A Brooklyn and Triple-A Syracuse where he allowed one earned run across 10 innings before being roughed up for five earned runs in three innings in his last outing for Syracuse.
Senga threw 79 pitches and would be prepared for the workload that comes with a major-league start. It is now likely to come against the Mets' NL East rivals.
