The Phillies are one of those teams, and they began the night as the wild-card leader.

But the Mets have only helped their opponents, being swept by the two wild-card leaders over the past week.

The Astros are 55-57 and six games behind the Cubs, the wild-card leaders, who also lost last night.

After a three-game series beginning tonight with the Padres at Shea Stadium, the Mets will play host to the wild-card leaders, the Dodgers, this weekend.

The Mets fell five and a half games behind Los Angeles, the wild-card leader and a 5-1 winner over San Francisco yesterday.

They can say 81 games is a lot of games to play, giving them time to catch up, either to the Braves or to the wild-card leaders.

Montreal is six and a half games behind the wild-card leader, Philadelphia.

The Mets are 14 1/2 games behind the wild-card leader, Los Angeles.

The Mets are seven and a half games behind the wild-card leaders, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Two months ago they were in sixth place in the N.L Central, 16 games from first and 9 games behind the wild-card leaders.