25 Games The 2025 Mets Would Love To Have Back

If the Mets and Reds remain tied, the Mets would miss the postseason since Cincinnati holds the tiebreaker over them by virtue of winning the season series 4-2. The Reds haven't exactly lit the world on fire of late, going just 24-26 over their past 50 games, but the Mets' free fall has opened the door for them to be caught in an erosion that may be worse than their infamous collapse in 2007, when they blew a 7-game lead in the NL East with 17 games to play to miss the postseason entirely.

There are a lot of reasons why the Mets have put themselves into this position, including some bad moves from David Stearns, a lack of aggression from Carlos Mendoza, and simple underperformance from most of the roster. Combining all of those factors has led to a year where the Mets have simply blown game after game in mind-boggling fashion, with their strong start masking the fact that they have played like one of the worst teams in the league for the majority of the season.

In the spirit of this being the year 2025, let's take a look back at 25 games the Mets wish they could have back right about now. All of these losses have taken place since June 13th, which will go down in infamy for the franchise if the Mets do complete this collapse and miss the postseason with a $340 million payroll.

25 Games The 2025 Mets Would Like To Have Back

June 13: The Mets built a 5-1 lead after five innings against Tampa Bay and handed that lead to Paul Blackburn, who was asked to absorb multiple innings. Blackburn imploded and the Mets gave up six runs in the frame, losing 7-5 to the Rays in the first of a 7-game losing streak.

June 17: New York's first game of the year against Atlanta saw the Mets have rare success against Spencer Schwellenbach, carrying a 4-1 lead into the eighth inning. The Braves loaded the bases in the eighth before Marcell Ozuna tied the game with a three-run double, setting the stage for Atlanta to walk off the Mets in the tenth on an Austin Riley sacrifice fly.

June 24: Frankie Montas did well in his Mets debut, tossing five shutout innings and leaving with a 3-0 lead against the Braves. The bullpen imploded, however, as Huascar Brazoban and Jose Castillo combined to allow five runs in the sixth as Atlanta scored 7 unanswered runs to snag a win.

June 27-29: We'll lump this series together as the Mets went to Pittsburgh to take on the last place Pirates and were completely outclassed in a weekend sweep, getting outscored 30-4 in the three games. Particular attention should be paid to the middle game, when the short-staffed Mets sent Blackburn back out after a long rain delay and watched him give up three runs almost immediately, leading to a players-only meeting and an IL stint for Blackburn.

July 10: After a rainout in Baltimore the night before, the Mets and Orioles played a doubleheader. Game 1 saw David Peterson give the Mets seven shutout innings before Ryne Stanek coughed up the lead in the eighth, surrendering a two-run homer to Gunnar Henderson as part of a three-run frame. Baltimore shut down the Mets' bats in the end and went on to sweep the twin bill.

July 28: Riding a seven-game winning streak, the Mets built a 5-1 lead in San Diego only to watch Montas give it all back as part of a five-run fifth inning. Trailing 6-5, the Mets tied the game in the ninth on a dramatic Ronny Mauricio homer before the Padres walked it off in the bottom of the frame, setting the stage for a series sweep.

August 1: After coming back home, the Mets played a thriller with the Giants, rallying from a 3-0 deficit to tie the game in the eighth. The contest went to extras, where Dom Smith gave San Francisco a 4-3 lead in the tenth and the Mets left the bases loaded in the bottom of the inning to suffer a loss.

August 4: This game against the Cleveland Guardians will be known as the Mike Sarbaugh special. The Mets showed guts, rallying from a 5-0 hole to tie the game in the eighth, but with one out in the ninth Sarbaugh made a very conservative hold call at third when Tyrone Taylor, who was pinch-running for Francisco Alvarez, easily could have scored on a Lindor double. The Mets failed to score in the ninth and were outscored 2-1 in extras to drop a winnable game that led to another sweep.

August 8: In their first appearance in Milwaukee since Alonso broke the Brewers' hearts last October, the Mets were down 3-2 in the ninth inning and got a two out double from Marte. Perhaps trying to compensate for his error in judgment three games earlier, Sarbaugh aggressively sent Marte home on a single off the bat of Jeff McNeil only for Brewers' center fielder Blake Perkins to throw a perfect strike to the plate, nabbing Marte to end the game.

August 10: The Mets' return to Milwaukee was an abject disaster as the Brewers got revenge for last year's Wild Card loss with a three-game sweep. Sunday's series finale was a kick in the teeth for the Mets, who built a 6-0 lead by the fourth inning only to give it all back, with Edwin Diaz blowing the game by allowing a walk-off homer to Isaac Collins in the bottom of the ninth.

August 13: After building a 6-0 lead in a game with a lengthy rain delay, the Mets looked to be cruising behind Peterson, who had been their best starter for a while. But the wheels came off in the fourth inning as the Mets gave up nine runs in the frame, capped by a Michael Harris grand slam to allow Atlanta to run away with an 11-6 win.

August 14: After a strong start from Kodai Senga, the Mets had a chance to finally execute their super bullpen strategy by going from Tyler Rogers to Ryan Helsley to Diaz to seal a 3-2 win. Rogers did his job, getting four outs in relief of Senga, but Helsley coughed up the lead in the eighth as Atlanta won 4-3 to take the series from the Mets.

August 20-21: A rough start from Senga against the Nationals created a 5-1 deficit before the Mets began to rally in the sixth inning, scoring three runs and loading the bases with one out. Rookie Cole Henry came in and got the final two outs of the inning as the Mets left them loaded and recorded just one baserunner the rest of the way in a 5-4 loss; that carried over to the next day, when the Mets were flat in a 9-3 loss to drop the series in Washington, D.C.

August 28: Fresh off an emphatic series sweep of the Phillies, the Mets delivered a sloppy performance against Miami, surrendering three unearned runs in the seventh inning to turn a 4-4 tie into a 7-4 loss.

August 30-31: After an awful start from Peterson put the Mets into an early hole, the offense showed resilience and rallied to tie the game at 8 by the sixth inning. The Mets' ace relievers ended up faltering, however, as Rogers gave up the go-ahead run in the seventh and Diaz gave up two in the ninth in a non-save situation to deliver an 11-8 loss, which carried into the next day when Sandy Alcantara completely shut down the Mets' bats.

September 7: While most fans were paying attention to the first Sunday of the NFL season, the Mets got a gem of a debut from Brandon Sproat, who allowed three runs on just three hits in six innings of work. The offense couldn't figure out Hunter Greene, however, as the Mets got one run off of him and wasted a ninth-inning rally as Starling Marte grounded into a game-ending double play to allow the Reds to hang on for a 3-2 win, securing the season series and tiebreaker against New York.

September 8: The next night in Philadelphia saw the Mets down 1-0 in the ninth inning, when Jhoan Duran gave up a leadoff single to Alonso. Mendoza, who had burned Luisangel Acuña as a pinch hitter in the previous inning, sent out Ronny Mauricio to run for Alonso and was burned as Mauricio got a bad read on a double off the bat of Mark Vientos, leaving him standing at third as McNeil and Alvarez struck out to end the game.

September 11: The Mets were trying to avoid a sweep in Philadelphia and built a 4-0 lead early, only for the Phillies to chip away and make it 4-3 against Peterson, who was pulled after five innings. Reed Garrett entered and gave up three runs while recording just two outs, turning the lead into a 6-4 deficit as the Mets dropped their sixth game in a row.

September 13: Losers of seven straight, the Mets carried a 2-0 lead into the eighth inning only to watch Rogers and Diaz combine to cough up the lead over the next two innings. The Mets had a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth with runners on the corners with two out but Nimmo struck out against Shawn Armstrong to end the game.

September 20: Seeking their first comeback after eight innings all season, the Mets tied the game in the top of the ninth and had the bases loaded with one out before Nimmo and Marte struck out to send the game to extras. Diaz got through the 10th in just seven pitches before the Mets squandered their first crack at the ghost runner, but Mendoza pulled Diaz in favor of Rogers, who was pitching for the third straight day. Cedric Mullins misplayed a well-struck ball from Daylen Lile into a game-crushing inside-the-park two-run homer as the Mets fell in 11.

September 21: This contest will forever go down in infamy for Mets fans as the Jacob Young game, when the Nationals' center fielder hackey-sacked a fly ball into an out in the fifth and robbed a game-tying home run from Alvarez in the ninth. Washington won 3-2 to knock the Mets into a tie with the Reds for the last Wild Card Spot.

If the Mets had managed to win even five of these games, they would be up 5 on the Reds with a chance to pop some champagne soon with a magic number of 2. Playing just under .500 at 12-13 would have them tied atop the NL East with the Phillies at 92-64 with the tiebreaker and an outside shot to pass Milwaukee for the best record in baseball.

Instead, however, the Mets went 0-25 in these games and are now staring at the brink of disaster. This run of awful baseball has been historically bad and the Mets have no one to blame but themselves if they miss the postseason. A game here or there is one thing, but giving up 25 games they could have had is a big reason why they're in a messy spot.