http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/08/sports/baseball/ny-mets-and-yankees-are-in-playoff-chase.html 2016-09-08 04:41:36 The Mets and the Yankees Are in It. That’s Baseball. Do the Mets and the Yankees really deserve to be in the postseason? The question is understandable, but pointless. === You can see it now, a plausible scenario coming into focus out in the distance. It might not be fair, but it is modern baseball — and it is really benefiting the New York teams. The The The Cubs and the Rangers have spent all season proving they deserve a shot at the World Series. The Cubs were 40 games over .500 before Wednesday’s games, and the Rangers (83-56) were the first A.L. team to clinch a winning record. Good for them. But this will be the fifth postseason to include a second wild card, a nothing-to-lose entrant riding a wave of momentum into the postseason party. Everybody starts over then. Do you remember that the Washington Nationals were the best N.L. team in 2012 and 2014? Maybe not, because they lost both times to the second wild-card team — the St. Louis Cardinals in 2012, the San Francisco Giants two years later. Last fall, the Cardinals felt the same kind of sting: They won 100 games in the regular season, but went nowhere because the second wild-card team — the Cubs — knocked them out. Two years ago, in his Kansas City booth before a game down the stretch, the Royals broadcaster Denny Matthews lamented the system. Matthews has been the voice of the Royals from their inception, in 1969, and he wondered what had happened to greatness. “I guess I grew up in a time when baseball did not reward mediocrity,” Matthews said. “Now, in a sense, we’re rewarding mediocrity. Sure, they won the wild card, but they’re not the best teams; otherwise they would have won their divisions. That’s just me; I’m kind of a purist. I think it’s a little bit of an illusion, too, the wild card. It’s kind of a manufactured pennant race.” All true. But later that fall, the Royals won the first A.L. wild card and surged to the World Series, losing in seven games to the Giants, who had won the second N.L. wild card. The Royals built off that experience to finish first in 2015 and capture a championship. Lifelong baseball fans do not need a 10-team playoff field to love the game. But there are not enough purists out there to expand an industry worth more than $9 billion, so here we are. The Mets and the Yankees still have a chance. Do they really deserve it? The question is understandable, but pointless. The logic behind the expanded playoff field is irrefutable. It really does make the sport more exciting down the stretch. More interest in more markets means better business for baseball. Rewarding the Yankees with a wild card, after they traded Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller, Carlos Beltran and Ivan Nova to revive their farm system and clear spots for their prospects, would seem a bit like giving them a participation trophy. But remember that Major League Baseball’s playoff field is still smaller than those of the N.F.L., the N.B.A. or the N.H.L. It would be a quite a story, too — though maybe not the most compelling in the city. The Mets have endured a barrage of injuries: Their first baseman, second baseman and third baseman are done for the year, as is their opening-day starter, Matt Harvey. Two other starters, Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz, are also down with arm problems, and it is hard to count on them coming back. Even Syndergaard is pitching with a bone spur in his right elbow. Yet the Mets have gone 14-4 since Aug. 20, the weekend Yoenis Cespedes and Asdrubal Cabrera returned from the disabled list. They completed a sweep of the woeful Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday and play 19 of their final 22 games against teams with losing records. “It’s a blast,” Manager Terry Collins told reporters in Cincinnati after Wednesday’s win, adding later: “There’s nothing like coming to the ballpark in September when it means something. The energy is better. The aches and pains don’t seem to hurt as bad. We’re fortunate to be where we are.” They are lucky indeed that the rest of the field is peeling away, with Miami and Pittsburgh wheezing and the Giants and the Cardinals looking vulnerable. There may not really be five strong teams in the National League, but we know that five teams will make the playoffs — and manufactured drama is still drama. Joe Girardi, the Yankees’ manager, dismissed the long odds facing his team, which is trying to push through a thicker group of contenders. “Statistics aren’t always right,” he said. “What are the chances that the Cleveland Cavaliers were going to win down 3-1? Not too good, but it happened.” The 2016 N.B.A. finals became a story for the ages, with LeBron James leading his desperate hometown team past the Golden State Warriors, defending champions who had just set a record for regular-season victories. That was greatness versus greatness. Baseball’s wild-card races do not represent that. They are just fun — and September fun, after all they have been through, is more than the New York teams could have expected.