Meet the Mets, who are playing in their first World Series since 2000

The Mets are heading to the World Series, a big accomplishment considering they were two games over .500 in the National League East on July 30. But, they reinvented their roster and finished 31-11 to buzz by the favored Nationals to win the division without drama.

The Mets continued to knock off favorites in the postseason. They beat Zack Greinke, Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers in the NL Division Series and swept the red-hot Cubs in the NL Championship Series.

The Mets have been off since Wednesday, but all is not lost. Of the 15 teams that have had at least five days off before the World Series, eight have gone on to win.

Still, time off before the World Series isn't good. Ask the 2007 Rockies, who had nearly a week off and were beaten soundly by the Red Sox, and the 2012 Tigers, who couldn't get it together against San Francisco after extended days off.

The Mets won Game 7 of the 1986 World Series against Boston on Oct. 27, the day that this year's World Series starts, begging the question: Is the postseason too long?

Here are Mets talking points:

* This will be the Mets' fifth World Series. They beat Boston for the title in 1986, and like the Royals' World Series title the year before, there was a historic and controversial play in Game 6: The Mets' Ray Knight, now a MASN analyst, scored the game-winning run when a ground ball rolled through Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner's legs, the one time Red Sox manager John McNamara didn't use defensive specialist Dave Stapleton in place of Buckner. The Mets won Game 6 and forced a Game 7, which they also won. ... The Miracle Mets of 1969 beat the 109-win Orioles in five games, back when the Mets played at Shea Stadium and the Orioles at Memorial Stadium. Mets pitching held the Orioles to a team average of .146 while Mets outfielder Donn Clendenon hit .357 with three home runs to win MVP honors. ... In 1973, the Mets lost to the Oakland Athletics, who beat Cincinnati for the title in 1972 and the Dodgers in the 1974 World Series. ... In 2000, the Mets lost a Subway Series to the Yankees in five games.

* Kansas City has home field advantage, but playing on the road doesn't bother the Mets. They were 30-14 on the road after July 1, best in the NL.

* This will be Citi Field's first World Series. The ballpark opened in 2009 and is considered a pitcher's park with dimensions of 408 feet to center, 370 to left-center, 380 to right-center, 335 to the left-field foul line and 330 to the right field foul line. Citi Field's signature is the home run apple that rises above the outfield fence after the Mets hit a home run. The red apple, adorned with a Mets logo, is 16 feet tall with an 18-foot diameter. The old apple from Shea Stadium was nine feet tall and has moved to the new ballpark, located at the home place entrance.

* The Mets' strength is their young pitching. They'll use Matt Harvey in Game 1 followed by Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz, with Syndergaard scheduled to pitching Game 7 if needed. The Mets rotation posted a 2.16 ERA in the NLCS, showing what happens when good pitching goes up against a good hitting. At 27, deGrom has 20 postseason strikeouts, third-most in Mets history behind Tom Seaver (35, 1973) and lefty Al Leiter (31 in 2000). Harvey is 26. Matz 24 and Syndergaard, 22. All are homegrown except Syndergaard. ... The only Royal to face any of the Mets starters is Alex Rios, who was 1-for-3 against Harvey while with the White Sox during interleague play in 2013.

* The Mets' biggest weakness could be their bullpen. Although their 2.81 ERA in nine postseason games is impressive, the bullpen can go up and down. The Mets acquired former Nat Tyler Clippard and Addison Reed to build a bridge from starter to closer, but Clippard has given up six hits in 4 2/3 postseason innings. Each was inconsistent in September. The bullpen has been a problem all season as manager Terry Collins has had to maneuver around seven injuries, including former Nationals lefty Jerry Blevins, and two PED suspensions. Collins had to use three different closers. And in the playoffs against the Dodgers, Collins went with Syndergaard in a late-inning situation, even though he'd never pitched in relief.

* The Mets aren't big on stealing bases. Their total, 51, is last in the NL. The Reds led the league with 154 steals. Curtis Granderson was the Mets' leader with 11, the lowest total for any team leader in the NL.

* The Mets have David Wright, Yoenis Cespedes, Lucas Duda and Granderson, but the batter who has stolen the show is second baseman Daniel Murphy, who has seven postseason home runs in nine games, the same number Willie Mays and Henry Aaron combined to hit in 42 postseason games. Murphy's total of seven is one short of the postseason record held by the Giants' Barry Bonds (2002) and the Rangers' Nelson Cruz (2011). Murphy, a 13^th-round draft pick out of Jacksonville Sate in 2006, has a 1.462 OPS in the postseason, fourth-highest in history behind Bonds (1.559 in 2002), the Astros' Carlos Beltran (1.557 in 2004) and the Athletics' Rickey Henderson (1.509 in 1989).

* The Mets, an expansion team in 1961, got their nickname by a fan vote. There were 9,613 different suggestions. Some of the names getting support were the Empires, Islanders, Skyliners and Skyscrapers.

* The Mets had an amazing turnaround, thanks to roster re-tooling and a deep farm system with good pitching at the lower levels. At the All-Star break, the Mets were the worst run-producing team in the NL (310), but, after acquiring Cespedes, Kelly Johnson and Juan Uribe, the Mets' 373 runs led the league in the second half. Also, the Mets were first in home runs (102) and first in OPS (.770) after the break. Cespedes hit 17 home runs, Uribe six and Johnson five after the Mets picked them up them in trades.

* The Mets have three retired numbers, including Hall of Fame pitcher Seaver (41), first baseman and manager Gil Hodges (14) and manager Casey Stengel (37). ... Seaver, the NL Rookie of the Year in 1967, had 311 career wins. ...Hodges hit the team's first home run in 1962 at St. Louis and managed the Mets in the 1969 World Series. ... Stengel was the club's first manager.

* One of the best trades in Mets history came in December 2012 when they made a multi-player trade with Toronto, sending R.A. Dickey, an NL Cy Young Award winner, to the Blue Jays in a deal that brought catcher Travis d'Arnaud and Syndergaard. d'Arnaud is on his way to becoming an All-Star and Syndergaard is showing that he's a top-of-the-rotation stud. Dickey is a .500 pitcher with an inconsistent knuckleball.

* The Mets' colors, blue and orange, recognize previous teams that left New York to play on the West Coast in 1958. The orange is for the New York Giants, who moved to San Francisco, and the blue is for the Brooklyn Dodgers, who became the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Prediction: The series' intrigue is the Royals' contact hitters going up against the Mets' power arms. Royals in seven.