Don't worry about trying to slug through the final couple of weeks of the MLB regular season.

Playoffs are around the corner, and we should have a good feel for who the top contenders will be in October.

The NL East race is still compelling, with the New York Mets clinging to a narrow lead over Atlanta.

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The wild-card races are not quite as interesting, but we can't rule out the Milwaukee Brewers, as tempting as it may be.

For this exercise, we're going to look at each top World Series contender and find reasons why they could lose in the 2022 playoffs.

 

New York Mets

While this has been a dream season for the Mets, any of the other National League contenders could take them down in the Division Series.

They are likely to end up as the No. 2 seed behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, in which case they would face the winner of the Wild Card Series between the No. 3 seed and the No. 6 seed.

The Mets have winning records against all of the potential candidates except the San Diego Padres. But the St. Louis Cardinals would present a difficult matchup for the Mets, who last faced them in mid-May when St. Louis looked like a different team (trade acquisitions José Quintana and Jordan Montgomery have since been added to the rotation).

There is also the challenge of keeping Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom healthy. Scherzer recently returned from missing 15 games with an oblique injury, and deGrom missed the first four months of the season with a shoulder injury.

As a tandem, Scherzer and deGrom are the strength of the Mets and the main reason to like their chances of making a postseason run.

Without them, capitalizing on this year's success is hard to imagine.