It’s a day before NFL predictions are due, but it seems like as good a time as any to go on the record with what you think wil happen with the Mets over the last few days of the season. Here’s one man’s predictions:

Tonight: Bad rain in the area delays the start of the game until nearly 11 p.m., but since the Cubs are leaving town and the Mets will almost surely need the game to count in the standings, officials refuse to postpone it outright. With an announced crowd of 51,000 but actual attendance of only about 940, the Mets get a halfway-decent outing from Pedro, Rich Harden only goes five innings in a playoff tuneup and the Mets get after the Cubs’ bullpen for a 7-4 victory. Meanwhile, the Phillies are off and the Brewers beat the Pirates.

NL East: Mets 1 game behind
Wild card: Tied

Friday: Mike Pelfrey walks 9 batters, lasts four innings and the Mets get five hits off Marlins starter Chris Volstad and his relievers. Pelfrey’s arm falls off in the clubhouse, making for an even more somber mood following a 6-1 loss. Brewers beat the Nationals but Cubs beat the Phillies.

NL East: Mets 1 game behind
Wild card: Mets 1 game behind

Saturday: Disastrous rain again. The Mets toy with a Sunday doubleheader but try to wait it out, again pushing first pitch all the way back until the late evening. Brandon Knight spot starts and gets through three innings, only to give up four in the fourth. Carlos Delgado then spurs a six-run Mets sixth with a three-run homer and the Mets bullpen somehow hangs on, with Luis Ayala loading the bases in the ninth before getting a strikeout to end it a 7-6 win. In Philly, the rain also makes for a long day but Jamie Moyer is nasty as usual and Phils win again, 3-1. Cubs beat the Brewers though, with Ted Lilly looking good in his playoff tuneup.

NL East: Mets one game behind
Wild card: Tied

Sunday: Oh, Sunday. The last day. The Mets throw Santana, the Brewers throw Sabathia and the Phillies throw someone (it’s TBA right now). Mets and Brewers win, Phillies lose and – seriously – we’ve got a three-team playoff!

Monday: Mets vs. Phillies in Philly to decide the NL East. Mets lose when Ryan Howard hits two home runs and drives in five. That means …

Tuesday: Mets vs. Brewers in New York. Sabathia can’t pitch and the Mets manage, once again, to get something decent from Pedro before his arm joins Pelfrey’s in the lunch room of the home clubhouse. Mets win the wild card, and immediately fly to Chicago the next day to begin the division series against the Cubs.

How’s that sound Mets fans?

CARP SAYS:

I see a scenario in which there is a rainout and the Mets have to play the Cubs on Monday. Chicago won’t use anybody of note because the game means nothing to the Cubbies, and the Mets win. But I don’t know if that will be enough to get them into the playoffs without one-game play-ins against the Phillies and/or Brewers.

You just know it will come down to the excruciating last pitch with the Mets—and when I say excruciating, I mean it really is torturous to watch them in the late innings, even if you have no rooting interest, and I don’t—and if it does come down to that, I don’t expect the Mets to survive.

Indeed, the only way I see the Mets getting in is if they tee off on some woeful pitching and put up six, seven, eight runs. Or if John Maine comes out of the pen and does a Mariano Rivera impersonation.