You may remember that the Mets began the 2018 season with an 11-1 run that turned out to be wildly misleading. By the end of May, they had fallen to the .500 mark, and by the middle of June, they were 10 games under. They were, it turned out, too old, too slow, too injury-prone (what else is new?) and, at times, deadly boring. And their rookie manager was, well, a rookie manager.
After 81 games, the halfway point of the season, the Mets were an unsightly 33-48 and once again back where they have spent much of the last decade — fourth place in the five-team National League East.