The Mets will try to join the 1951 New York Giants, 1982 Braves, 2017 Dodgers and 2025 Guardians as the only teams to reach the postseason despite a 10-game losing streak at any point in the year. In the Wild Card Era -- since 1995 -- five teams to lose at least nine straight games have still qualified for the postseason; all five instances have happened since 2010.
Let’s take a further look at the five teams to make the playoffs while also having a nine-game losing streak in the same season in the Wild Card Era to see what sort of parallels might exist with the Mets.
2017 Dodgers -- 11 games
Sept. 2-11
The same team that took the vaunted Astros all the way to Game 7 of the World Series suffered a rather stunning 11-game skid in Sept. 2017. The circumstances were far different from those facing the Mets: Before its losing streak, L.A. looked like a juggernaut, playing to a .717 clip and building a 21-game lead in the NL West on Aug. 25. Then the losing streak hit.
Here’s what Clayton Kershaw had to say at the time: “When you’re losing, it feels like no matter what you do, you can’t dig out of it. Changing those trends is a hard thing to do.” When the Dodgers finally snapped their skid, they clinched a postseason berth on the same day.
2025 Guardians -- 10 games
June 26-July 6
Cleveland is the most recent example that the Mets can look to for reassurance. The Guardians’ 10-game skid bridged June into July, a tenuous time for teams to start stacking losses, considering front offices have to evaluate the roster and determine an approach at the Trade Deadline. Cleveland’s lineup mounted just 15 runs across these 10 games. An improbable turnaround followed, as the Guardians chased down the Tigers for the AL Central crown on the final day of the regular season.
2023 D-backs -- 9 games
Aug. 1-Aug. 11
Here’s another NL West team that won the pennant despite a bumbling late-season slump. Arizona sure didn’t look like a World Series-caliber team when it opened August -- right after the Deadline -- on a nine-game skid, falling two games below .500. But a resilient D-backs team mounted a response, winning 84 games and capturing the third and final NL Wild Card spot, enough to kickstart a lengthy October run.
