The New York Mets looked incredibly vulnerable just a few weeks ago. They lost 11 of their last 18 regular season games, including six of their last seven. Over those last seven games, the offense managed just 10 runs. The final month of the regular season was dominated by talk of Matt Harvey’s right arm -- when, if and why it would break down with additional innings after Tommy John surgery two years ago.

Despite a rough ending, the season yielded a National League East title. The reward? An NLDS in which Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke would start four games, including the deciding Game 5.

The Mets didn’t blink, as Jacob deGrom outpitched both Kershaw and Greinke en route to the NLCS. The next obstacle was just as daunting. Joe Maddon had been pushing all the right buttons down the stretch -- eight straight victories to finish the regular season and four wins in five playoff games against two of baseball’s best clubs.

Chicago also employed a lineup full of power hitters, which can be a dangerous recipe for hard-throwing pitchers, and a top-heavy starting rotation (Jake Arrieta and Jon Lester) seemingly built for the postseason.

Four games later, the Mets’ only chore was to put the broom back in the closet. The Cubs hit just four home runs in the NLCS after clubbing 12 in their first five postseason games. New York’s young hurlers held Chicago’s offense to just two runs per game after the North Siders averaged 4.25 over 162 games.

All the Mets needed to reach their first World Series since 2000 was Daniel Murphy and their pitching staff. Murphy, the NLCS MVP, had a 1.850 OPS in the series and drove in just two fewer runs (6) than the Cubs did as a team. The pitchers? They’ve been hot since the calendar turned to October.

In nine games, Terry Collins’ staff has a 2.81 ERA while holding hitters to a .206/.263/.318 slash line. They have a combined strikeout-to-walk ratio of 4.14 with nearly 100 Ks in those games.

That rotation, which will trot out Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz, is why I’m picking the Mets to send the Kansas City Royals to their second-straight World Series defeat.

Mets in 6.

Kansas City has turned over nearly half of their roster since facing the San Francisco Giants in the Fall Classic last year, but their core values (contact hitting, elite defense) remain the same. The Royals’ strengthens will make them a tougher out for the Mets than the Cubs, who swing-and-miss with the best of them.

With that said, the Mets should be confident in their ability to score runs off Kansas City’s pitching staff, including the ace once known as Johnny Cueto, but in a short series luck comes into play. The Royals prevent runs that an average team would allow to cross the plate. You can hit the ball hard and still find the glove of a defender.

The rotation, the reason the Mets are where they are and why anyone is picking them to win this series, could quickly become their downfall against these Royals.

Ned Yost’s crew isn’t at all patient at the plate; they walked fewer times than all but one Major League team (Miami Marlins), but they struck out fewer times than any other team (973). The Mets lean on strikeouts to get out of jams and keep the bases clear, but won’t consistently have that luxury in this series.

That means Harvey, deGrom and Syndergaard will have to rely on their defense often. The Mets ranked eighth in the Major Leagues in Defensive Efficiency (.697, percentage of balls in play converted into outs), just four percentage points behind the Royals, but allowed eight more runs to score than the average defense would have over 162 games (according to Baseball Reference). The Royals’ defense prevented 16 runs per the same statistic.

If the Mets play good defense, we'll see the same dominance we’ve come to expect from their pitchers. The Royals saw the fewest pitches per plate appearance this season, a result of their aggressive approach that could allow Collins to get length from his starters and shorten the bridge to surging closer Jeurys Familia.

The trend of catching fire in October en route to a World Series title is no longer a passing fad. It has quickly become the rule and the Mets will be the latest beneficiary.