Mets crazy regular season set up for fitting final chapter

MILWAUKEE — The way this nutty, up-and-down Mets season is going, it’s only right it’s going extras.Twenty eight of 30 teams are done playing regular-season games, but the Mets headed out for a return one-day, two-game trip to Atlanta to face their nemesis Braves after finally beating their newest nemesis here Sunday.Mets travel is a continuing nightmare this year, from the one-game series in St.Louis sandwiched by West Coast swings to the hurricane in Atlanta this week, and it isn’t getting any better with the trip back to their least favorite city.“It’s not surprising the way this season’s gone,” Brandon Nimmo said.

“We’ve definitely had some weird things happen.”The itinerary stinks, as they’ll need to fly and play their first playoff game on the road the very next day if they’re in.But this is the position they want, and exactly what they deserve.They only need to win one of two to punch their ticket to October.Call them fortunate, if you will, as their 5-0 victory Sunday represented their first win on this trip from hell, which already saw three defeats and two games postponed by Hurricane Helene.

But realize, too, that the Mets battled back from an 0-5 start, and a standing 11 games under .500 to put themselves in this position by posting MLB’s best record over a 100-game span heading into the stretch run.Say what you want, but they earned this spot.Now all they have to do is win a game in a place they hate, then four more rounds, all likely with disadvantages for record and locale.“It’s going to be a tough task,” J.D.

Martinez said.“We just got to suck it up and get through it.”With a relatively small but vocal Mets contingent to cheer them on, they showed why they are one of 13 teams left still hoping to win the grand prize.

Emerging star David Peterson pitched a gem and Mets MVP Francisco Lindor set the needed tone, ignoring any lingering back pain to involve himself in three run-scoring innings, including the first...