MLB Standings Show Just How Deep a Hole the Phillies and Mets Are In

NL East cellar-dwellers are nowhere near contention at this early stage.

The Phillies now own the longest losing streak in Major League Baseball at eight games. | Patrick Gorski-Imagn Images

One National League East team in free-fall mode was able to stop gravity momentarily on Wednesday night as the Mets rode a gem from Clay Holmes and a clutch two-out go-ahead hit from Mark Vientos in the eighth inning to down the Twins, 3-2. This snapped an incredible and unexpected 12-game slide from the perceived contender while the Phillies found no such luck as they once again suffered a lopsided loss to the Cubs. That's now eight straight times Philadelphia has found itself on the wrong end of the scoreboard. They now find themselves tied with the rival Mets in the cellar at 8-16.

At this early stage of the season each of these teams is 8 1/2 games behind division-leading Atlanta. This is the furthest any club finds itself from where it wants to go. Even the Rockies have kept closer pace with the Dodgers and Padres (tied at 16-8) in the NL West. The lowly Royals (8-17) are only 5.5 games back in the AL Central as no team has seperated from the pack.

It's probably a bit premature to look at history for the largest deficits overcome to win a division but let's do it anyway.

Team	Year	Deficit	Date
Guardians	2025	15.5 GB	July 6
Yankees	1978	14 GB	July 19
Athletics	2012	13 GB	June 30
Mariners	1995	13 GB	August 2
Twins	2006	12.5 GB	July 14

The takeaway? Lots of teams have been down worse and dug their way out of the hole. And with playoff expansion there are more routes for the Phillies and Mets to explore. Yet with how strong the NL Central has been—with the fifth-place Brewers sitting outside the wild card right now despite being a 5.5 games ahead of the NL East chasers, it's going to require some really, really strong play to ensure any room for error.

One other thing to keep an eye on here is the fact that these two teams don't play each other until June 18. All of their head-to-head work will take place later in the season when they potentially cannot afford any more losses. That's going to ramp up the pressure and seems to suggest that only one can survive in the quest to fight back to contention.

Or strange things can happen and they finish 1-2 in the division. That's baseball.

Yesterday's MLB scores

Marlins 4, Cardinals 1

Astros 2, Guardians 0

Rays 6, Reds 1

Orioles 8, Royals 6

Tigers 5, Brewers 2

Angels 7, Blue Jays 3

Mariners 5, Athletics 4

Braves 8, Nationals 6

Yankees 4, Red Sox 1

Mets 3, Twins 2

Cubs 7, Phillies 2

Pirates 8, Rangers 4

Rockies 8, Padres 3

Diamondbacks 11, White Sox 7

Giants 3, Dodgers

Updated MLB standings

National League East

Team	Record	Games Behind
Braves	17-8	--
Marlins	12-13	5.0
Nationals	11-14	6.0
Phillies	8-16	8.5
Mets	8-16	8.5

National League Central

Team	Record	Games Behind
Reds	16-9	--
Cubs	15-9	0.5
Pirates	14-10	1.5
Cardinals	14-10	1.5
Brewers	13-10	2.0

National League West

Team	Record	Games Behind
Padres	16-8	--
Dodgers	16-8	--
Diamondbacks	14-10	2.0
Giants	11-13	5.0
Rockies	10-15	6.5

American League East

Team	Record	Games Behind
Yankees	15-9	--
Rays	13-11	2.0
Orioles	12-13	3.5
Blue Jays	10-14	4.5
Red Sox	9-15	6.0

American League Central

Team	Record	Games Behind
Guardians	14-12	--
Tigers	13-12	0.5
Twins	12-12	2.0
White Sox	9-15	4.0
Royals	8-17	5.5

American League West

Team	Record	Games Behind
Athletics	13-12	--
Rangers	12-12	0.5
Angels	12-14	1.5
Mariners	11-15	2.5
Astros	10-16	3.5

Today's MLB schedule

All times ET

Braves vs. Nationals, 1:05 p.m.

Brewers vs. Tigers, 1:10 p.m.

Phillies vs. Cubs, 2:20 p.m.

Padres vs. Rockies, 3:10 p.m.

White Sox vs. Diamondbacks, 3:40 p.m.

Dodgers vs. Giants, 3:45 p.m.

Yankees vs. Red Sox, 6:10 p.m.

Twins vs. Mets, 7:10 p.m.

Pirates vs. Rangers, 8:05 p.m.

---