MILWAUKEE — Manager David Stearns gave no indication of the logistical debacle the Mets could face in the coming days.
In his first public comments since the final two games of the Mets-Braves series were postponed by Hurricane Helen, the Mets' director of baseball operations said Friday that MLB has no viable options other than rescheduling the game for Monday. He said he wasn't sure if there was.
If the game affects the National League Wild Card race, a doubleheader will be played in Atlanta.
If the game is just to determine seeding, it will be up to commissioner Rob Manfred to decide whether the game will take place.
The National League Wild Card Series is scheduled to begin on Tuesday.
Before the Mets opened their third straight game against the Brewers at American Family Field, Stearns was asked if he was satisfied with MLB's handling of the situation.
“The truth is, we don't know,” Stearns said. “I don't know what we did right. Nobody wants to play a Monday doubleheader. The Braves didn't want that outcome, MLB didn't want that outcome. Of course we didn't want that outcome either.
Among the possibilities was a doubleheader on Tuesday if each team knew the weather forecast.
However, the Braves pushed to continue the series as scheduled, and MLB complied with that request.
There was an option to move Wednesday's game to the afternoon, but it's unclear whether that would have been effective. It rained intermittently during the early afternoon, but by around 2:30 p.m. the rain had become heavy, and the game was eventually postponed.
“I think it's easy to look back and say we could have done things differently to get there,” Stearns said. “Also, it's difficult to predict exactly what the weather will be like at this point, and there's a lot of things everyone is considering to make the best possible decisions. If so, we will do the best we can.
“Things like this happen, you can't control the weather, you can't control how long you play, so we've been through rain twice and gotten this far. I think everyone is really looking forward to playing.” Masu.”
The Mets started the day with an even game against Arizona, one game ahead of Atlanta, for the second wild card spot in the National League.
The Mets will have to earn a postseason berth before leaving town, or Monday's game could be necessary.
One possibility would be to play 18 innings on Monday and then head straight to San Diego for the Wild Card Series.
Or the Mets could return to Milwaukee. Or go home for the winter.
Stearns was asked when he started looking at the scoreboard.
“I was definitely looking at the scoreboard last weekend,” Stearns said. “But the truth is, if we win, we're in it, and we're still in control of our own destiny. As long as we're in control of what we're doing, Most concentrated.”
The saving grace for the Mets is that the Brewers are already locked into the No. 3 seed for the postseason and have nothing to gain from the final regular-season series.
Would Sterns prefer to face Milwaukee in the Wild Card round, given that he knows the Brewers from his time leading the Brewers' front office?
“Our focus is to make the playoffs,” Stearns said. “If we make the playoffs, we’re going to play whoever we need to play.”
