Mets are basically in the playoffs even before October

The Mets are in the playoffs trying to make the playoffs.They are in the midst of a best-of-three weeks to try to earn entry to a best-of-three, wild card round series.If you haven’t noticed — barring a startling run by the Cubs, Mariners or Red Sox — we know the identity of 11 of 12 postseason participants already.Sure, there is jockeying, say, on if the Yankees or Orioles wins the AL East or who takes the AL Central.

But there were 11 teams who began Saturday with at least an 81 percent chance of making the playoffs, according to FanGraphs.The lone mystery involved the National League wild card.“I hate to be scoreboard watching this early in the month, but every game is gonna kind of matter down the stretch,” said Phil Maton, who has been in the playoffs three of the last four seasons.

“You don’t want to get to that last series of the year and be like, ‘Man, if we could have won a game here or there, we’d be in a different spot.’ ”Look, even at this late date, the odds to make the playoffs can veer substantially with a run of success or failure.The Diamondbacks and Padres were among the 11 clubs with better than 80 percent playoff odds, but that feels more tenuous.

Consider that the Mets went into Saturday riding an eight-game winning streak and their playoff percentage had risen from 13.1 to 49.1 percent during that stretch.The Mets made up four games on the Braves during their tear to tie Atlanta for the final wild card spot but also made up 5 ¹/₂ on the Diamondbacks to move within 1 ¹/₂ games of the second wild card and three games on the Padres to move within three of the top wild card position.The Mets cannot stay this hot the rest of the way, especially because the degree of difficulty of their schedule heightens beginning later this week with one of two series left against the Phillies.But really, this is about the top of the NL being on fire since the All-Star break and just who will cool and how much?The six best second-hal...