It’s a fair question to ask and one that could be answered rather simply with the way things have gone for the team over the past several weeks. The Mets have been ravaged with injuries, not hitting when the pitching is on and not pitching when the hitting is on, as well as their manager being speculated to be on the hot seat by baseball insiders. I noted that prior to their last homestand against below average opponents that stretch could possibly make or break their season. And it looks like that homestand, and the trip to Arizona have spoken quite loudly.

The Mets are 3-7 in their last ten games, and are facing two opponents back to back in the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals, who are holding the two key Wild Card Spots the Mets are gunning for. The Mets and Jacob deGrom suffered an epic unraveling last night against the Giants after showing promise taking an early four run lead against Mets killer Madison Bumgarner. The Giants who have been playing worse baseball than the Mets have (which is hard to believe) since the All Star Break took it to the Mets last night in what felt somewhat like a playoff game. The Mets are going to have to approach the next six games as playoff games if they want any shot of the Wild Card. The Mets currently sit 4.5 games behind the Cardinals for the final Wild Card spot.

While there is speculation surrounding Terry Collins job status, he is clearly not going anywhere this season. GM Sandy Alderson has already come out and stated that there is no plans to make any changes at the managerial position, and it would also make no sense to replace him with anybody this late in the season. Now whether Collins will be the Manager next season is another debate for another day, but as much as I do love Collins and don’t fault him for the injuries this season, his in-game managing and handling of young players such as Michael Conforto has been filled with error this season.

And yes we will finally get to see Yoenis Cespedes and Jay Bruce in the same outfield together for the first time since the Mets acquired Bruce at the deadline, but it may be too little too late. But I do believe there is a silver lining and a small glimmer of hope, as the Mets can’t be much worse offensively with both Cespedes and Asdrubal Cabrera returning to the lineup tonight potentially. I believe if the Mets have any shot at the playoffs it’s going to come with the return of the Mets best offensive player returning to the lineup and  a miracle.

It’s blatantly obvious things have been bad for the Mets for weeks now and maybe it isn’t their year. But with their season hanging on life support over the next six games, this team will have to fight and scrap to have any chance at seeing October. If they fail to do so, we will soon begin talking about 2017 and especially how this team can keep Yoenis Cespedes as we have seen they are dreadful without him in the lineup.