Monday’s 5-0 Mets victory over the Reds at Great American Ball Park was their third straight win, and they’ve also won six of eight games and 12 of their past 16 to stay within a half-game of the second National League Wild Card spot. Bartolo Colon tossed six scoreless innings in the shutout.

The struggle has become a concern. And manager Bruce Bochy admits it. Even the hitter-friendly environment of Coors Field on Monday wasn’t enough to provide a lift to the Giants’ struggling offense.

A couple of division races are proving to be close enough to have a chance to stretch into the final weekend of the season, but the most compelling storylines are coming out of the American League Wild Card race, where a whole mess of teams — as many as seven, as of Monday — have a realistic shot to grab one of the final two playoff spots.

For two innings Monday, Max Scherzer looked alarmingly hittable. The Nationals’ righty and National League Cy Young Award contender recorded only one swing-and-miss over the first seven batters he faced, and the Braves took an early lead. Then Scherzer settled down, rediscovered his command and lifted the Nationals to a 6-4 win over the Braves, finishing with two runs allowed over seven innings.

Brad Ausmus calls it a “cleansing” that Justin Upton went through in mid-August, when he was mired in a deep slump at the plate and spinning his wheels.

If there was any thought of the Pirates catching up to the Cardinals in the National League Wild Card standings, St. Louis quickly and defiantly crushed it Monday, running away with a 12-6 win at PNC Park.

It’s a trade that keeps on giving in the form of Miguel Cabrera, who launched his 300th home run as a member of the Tigers on Monday afternoon in a 5-3 victory against the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field.

The Pirates lost their seventh straight game on Monday afternoon, a 12-6 defeat to the Cardinals they’ve been trying to catch up to in the National League Wild Card race.

The Red Sox managed just one run in Monday’s loss to the Padres and were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, missing on a handful of occasions to put more runs on the scoreboard.

If not for White Sox left fielder Melky Cabrera, the Tigers might have finished in regulation their 5-3 victory that instead took 11 innings Monday at U.S. Cellular Field.

Fully recovered from the left hamstring injury that prevented him from finding instant comfort within a new environment, Ender Inciarte has spent the past two months proving he has the potential to be a game changer — both with the bat and the glove. His prolonged success has positioned him to produce the best post All-Star break batting average in Braves history.

A week ago, Rangers starter Cole Hamels was starting to get serious and well-deserved consideration for the American League Cy Young Award. That was before he ran into the Mariners.

Justin Verlander and Chris Sale pitched well enough to win on a perfect Labor Day afternoon Monday at U.S. Cellular Field. But they both settled for quality starts and no-decisions in the Tigers’ 5-3 victory over the White Sox in 11 innings.

Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli left Monday’s 12-6 loss to the Cardinals at PNC Park after four innings due to left thumb discomfort.

Led by Chris Davis’ three RBIs, the Orioles scored seven unanswered runs to rally past the Rays on Monday afternoon at Tropicana Field. The 7-3 win helped the O’s, who are tied with the Tigers for the second American League Wild Card spot, close to within two games of the first-place Blue Jays in the AL East and one game of the Red Sox for the top Wild Card spot.

With the arrival of highly touted first-base prospect Josh Bell, it looked like John Jaso might be relegated to a reserve role down the stretch. But Jaso may have hit his way back into more playing time.

The Yankees don’t intend to go down without a fight, and they certainly aren’t going to make things easy for the division leaders in the American League East.