Meet the champs: Mets clinch first NL East title since 2006

Step right up and meet the 2015 NL East champions, the New York Mets.

For the first time since 2006, the Mets stand alone atop their division and are playoff bound thanks to a 10-2 victory against the Cincinnati Reds.

Fittingly enough, it was Matt Harvey on the hill for New York's clincher. Given all the talk about innings limits and how much he'd be available down the stretch, it feels appropriate that he made this start. He was pretty good, too, allowing two earned runs over 6 2/3 innings.

As they've done consistently since the trade deadline, New York's offense provided plenty of support. Lucas Duda smacked a first-inning grand slam, giving him 10 RBIs in a 24-hour span. Duda hit two three-run homers in Friday's win. In another fitting moment, captain David Wright capped the Mets scoring in the ninth with a three-run homer.

The fact the Mets snapped their nine-year postseason drought isn't surprising. Many viewed them as a potential wild-card contender thanks largely to their strong starting pitching. However, not many saw them running away and hiding in NL East while the Washington Nationals faded into the background.

That's why they play the games. Nothing is ever set in stone, and now the Mets are set up to make a deep postseason run.

By clinching now, the Mets have taken a lot pressure off manager Terry Collins in terms of handing his starting rotation. With the team still looking to limit innings for Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz, they enter the final week knowing they don't have any must-win games. Sure, home-field in the NLDS would be nice, but certainly not at the expense of keeping their important arms fresh. The key just might be making sure they don't get too much rest.

The turning point for the Mets season came at the trade deadline when general manager Sandy Alderson added veterans Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson.

Oh, yes, they also got that Yoenis Cespedes guy, which was the culmination of a wild deadline week. The Mets went from acquiring Carlos Gomez and trading a heartbroken Wilmer Flores to the Milwaukee Brewers, to acquiring Cespedes and watching Flores hit a game-winning home run that same day after the Gomez deal fell through.

Who knows what might have been had Gomez ended up with the Mets. We do know what happened with Cespedes. He caught immediate fire, providing the middle-of-the-order thump New York sorely needed. Though he's slowed down a bit recently, he's still hitting .296/.341/.634 with 17 home runs and 51 RBIs in 52 games with New York.

That's a huge impact and a big confidence boost for this entire Mets team. They know they can pitch. But until Cespedes arrived, they didn't know if they could score enough runs. Now that they've unlocked that feature, the sky is the limit for New York.