On May 23, the Yankees defeated the White Sox, 5-4, to complete a three-game sweep of the American League Central leaders and win their sixth straight game overall. At 28-19, playing at a .596 clip, they put themselves on target to finish 97-65.
They would not match or exceed that winning percentage for the duration of the season.
The Mets, meanwhile, worked themselves onto a 90-72 pace on multiple occasions, most recently June 26 with a 4-3 win over the Phillies that put them at 40-32 (don’t get thrown off by the weird record-keeping that now shows them to be 41-32, on track for 91-71, after that game — the April 11 suspended game against the Marlins, completed on August 31, messed up everything).
But the Mets (77-84 going into Sunday’s season finale) wound up nowhere near the 90-72 record that I forecast for them (and posted on Twitter a handful of times). The Yankees (91-70, pending Game 162, at least) finished closer to the pin of 97-65, yet close counts only in horseshoes and Joe West calls.