After the Mets pulled out a 6-4 win over the Cardinals, there was hope for the team to at least take the series and leap over one team ahead of them in the race for the second Wild Card.  As Noah Syndergaard will tell you, the Mets are the second half team.  If you wanted a glimmer of hope, here it was.

On Saturday, there was hope.  Zach Wheeler turned his season around allowing just two earned over six innings.  When Jay Bruce homered to start the seventh inning, and the Mets knocked Adam Wainwright out of the game, there was a chance.  Then Fernando Salas came into the game.  He was dreadful as usual, and the relievers that followed weren’t much better.  A one run deficit became a three run lead too much for the Mets to overcome.

From there, things fell apart.  For the first time all season, Steven Matz just didn’t have it allowing five runs over 4.1 inning.  The Mets offense could only muster three hits off of Lance Lynn.  With that, the momentum from Friday night’s victory was gone.  Quite possibly, hope for the Mets making any sort of run in the second half of the season.

Heading into the break, the Mets are 39-47 getting outscored by their opponents by 47 runs.  They are 12 games behind the Nationals in the National League East.  The team is 10.5 games behind the second Wild Card.  Worse than that, the Mets are 5-21 against teams with a winning record.

Every time you want hope, the Mets make sure to take it away.  Perhaps, it is better this way.  It is time for everyone to admit this team is going nowhere.  It is time to sell.  It is time for Dominic Smith, Gavin Cecchini, and Amed Rosario to show the Mets what they are capable of doing.  With them playing everyday, it is possible we can all begin to hope again.