SAN DIEGO — The Mets are finally finished with their West Coast schedule.
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A schedule that sent the team to parts west on four of five road trips to begin the season concluded with Sunday’s 7-3 victory over the Padres.
The Mets have played at the Giants, Dodgers, Angels, Rockies, Diamondbacks, Mariners and Padres.
All told, it’s been 22 of 65 games in the Pacific and Mountain time zones.
In contrast, the Mets have played only seven road games in the Eastern time zone.
They have played six others in the Central.
Carlos Mendoza is pictured during the Mets’ June 3 game against the Mariners. Getty Images
“It’s brutal,” David Peterson said of the schedule. “I think they need to take a look at how they are doing the schedules and fix it. We’re in June and we haven’t seen Atlanta or Philly yet and usually we would have seen them by now.”
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That will begin changing when the Braves arrive at Citi Field for a three-game series starting Friday.
On their ensuing road trip, the Mets will face the Phillies for the first time.
Among Peterson’s issues with the West Coast travel was the absence of an off-day when heading east to west.
Three times the Mets went from playing during the day in Queens to a game the following night on the West Coast.
Teams are required to receive an off-day when they travel from the West Coast to the East Coast.
“There is one way of looking at it, where we’ve got all our West Coast swings out of the way,” Peterson said. “But I also think the schedule over the last couple of years has lost some of the balance that it’s had previously.”
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Do the condensed mileage and time-zone hopping take a physical toll?
“It could be a challenge, but I feel like our guys do a good job of communicating with our training staff, making sure they recover their sleep, the nutrition, all that,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “You go to places like Colorado [with the altitude], and that is where you feel it the most, but … the guys do a really good job of doing what they need to do to stay in good shape.”
And Mendoza isn’t about to concede the Mets have played their last game out West this season.
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“We’re done for the regular season,” he said. “I am trying to be optimistic here.”
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