With the 1st half of the season coming to a close, our Mets now stand at 48-40, 4.0 games behind the Braves for the division lead, and 1.0 game behind the Rockies and Dodgers for the Wild Card lead. Let's take a look at what the 2nd half has in store for this team.

-It begins with a trip to the West Coast, two 4 game series against the Giants and the Dodgers with a 3 game series against Zona in between.
-After that is a trip back home, with St. Louis and Arizona coming in.
-Next up we go on the road to face our rivals, first Atlanta and then Philly.
-Then we go back home, with the Rockies and Phillies coming in for 3 game sets.
-After than we go back on the road, with a should-be easy week against the Astros and Pirates.
-Then back home to host Florida, and again, Houston.
-Next we go on the road to Atlanta, Chicago and Washington.
-Back home to host Philly, Pittsburgh for four and Atlanta.
-For the last road trip of the year, we go to Florida for 2 and then to Philly for 3.
-To round out the season, the Brew Crew comes in for four followed by a 3 game set against the Nationals.

Alright, so that probably got you lost. Let's look at it by the numbers.

Home: 35
Away: 39
74 games left.

Games left by team
vs Atlanta: 10 (3 home, 7 away)
vs Philadelphia: 12 (6 home, 6 away)
vs Florida: 5 (3 homes, 2 away)
vs Washington: 6 (3 home, 3 away)
vs Cincinnati: 0 (0 home, 0 away)
vs St. Louis: 3 (3 home, 0 away)
vs Milwaukee: 4 (4 home, 0 away)
vs Chicago: 3 (0 home, 3 away)
vs Houston: 7 (3 home, 4 away)
vs Pittsburgh: 7 (4 home, 3 away)
vs San Diego: 0 (0 home, 0 away)
vs Los Angeles: 4 (0 home, 4 away)
vs Colorado: 3 (3 home, 0 away)
vs San Francisco: 4 (0 home, 4 away)
vs Arizona: 6 (3 home, 3 away)

-We've got a lot of games left against our competition. Games against Philly and Atlanta make up almost 30% of what we have left. While they are stiff competition, those games are great opportunities to makes up for lost ground or strengthen a lead... or dangerous games which can really set you back.
-Other than the Braves and Phillies though, we don't play much of the other good teams. We have no games left with division leaders Cincinnati or San Diego, only one series left against the likes of St. Louis, LA, Colorado and San Francisco. Only 5 games left against the pesky Fish too.
- That leaves a lot of games against the, as Keith would put it, second division clubs. We've got 6 games against both Arizona and Washington, and 7 against both Pittsburgh and Houston.

Now let's look at some interesting stretches.
-We start the 2nd half in the West Coast playing San Francisco, Arizona and Los Angeles, and then come back home to face St. Louis.
-After St. Louis comes Arizona, and then we have another tough stretch. A road trip through Atlanta and Philly and then come back home to face Colorado and Philly, again.
-After that we have a nice stretch. For the next 23 games, we face Houston 7 times, and the Pirates, Cubs, Marlins and Nationals three times each. The only tough series is 4 against the Braves in the middle.
-After that their is no really hard or easy stretch. We still have some games left against teams beneath us, but we also face the Braves and Phillies often.

Finally, looking at the schedule by teams and making some quick assumptions as to around how we should go, I could see us winning about 40 in the second half. That would put is at 88 wins to end the season. What do you think?