For crying out loud! Mets offense a no-show again in an anemic 5-2 loss, fall back to .500
The Mets sit six games out of first place with an 18-18 record
What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets lost again, this time by a 5-2 score to the Rockies at Citi Field on Saturday (Box)
Saturday marked the 13th time in the season’s first 34 games the Mets scored two runs or less in a game
Francisco Lindor snuck in a double around only six other singles from the Mets on the day, although both he and Pete Alonso drove in the two runs for the club
Tylor Megill struggled over 4.2 IP - he allowed three runs, six hits and three walks to take his second loss of the year
The Mets went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, and are 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position in this series, having scored just three runs in their last 31 innings
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (17-17) vs Rockies (13-21)
Where: Citi Field — Flushing, NY
Starters: LHP Joey Lucchesi (1-0, 3.86 ERA) vs RHP Ryan Feltner (2-2, 4.45 ERA)
When: 1:40 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
It’s a maddening display of baseball! ✍🏼
I don’t even know what to say about the offense anymore. All I can offer is, as I said yesterday, we are getting close to that mile marker in the season when the team generally is what it is.
And right now, the Mets are a middling team with a slow, powerless, anemic offense and a broken pitching staff.
Thus, the Mets are .500 and can’t seem to get out of their own way. Just wait until the schedule gets a little thicker for them.
First off, about the offense.
The Mets have scored three runs in their last 32 offensive innings, and boy have they been offensive. They’re 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position in this series, and they didn’t even get a runner in scoring position on Thursday.
But this situation with the offense spans way further than that embarrassing series against Detroit.
This team rut the Mets fell in started on April 22 in San Francisco when the small sample size of success despite all of their deficiencies and injuries appeared to catch up with the club. Since that date, a span of 13 games, the Mets are hitting .229/.281/.363 with 30 extra-base hits, and 64 singles.
That singles-hitting, station-to-station offense has produced 40 runs during that span, or 3.1 runs per game.
Again, I don’t even know what to say about that.
Actually, I can piss and moan about it for another paragraph or two, just in case I haven’t gotten the point across.
In those same 13 games, the Mets have scored two runs or less seven times(!!!!), one run or less six times(!!!!!!), and been shutout three times(!!!!!!!!!).
But wait, there’s more!
The Nationals held the Mets to one run or less twice, so did the Tigers, and now the Rockies have allowed three whole runs to the Mets in the first two games of this series.
Again, just wait until this schedule beefs up on the Mets.
We haven’t even talked about the pitching yet, either. So, lets get to it, shall we?
In those same 13 games, the Mets team ERA has risen from 3.94 to 4.48. They’ve allowed 5.1 runs per game during that span and are sporting a 5.42 ERA during that time as well.
Yes, the Mets have been without Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander in large measure, and yes, their bullpen has been generally good despite the absence of Edwin Díaz (although, nobody on this planet his absence hasn’t cost the Mets late in games this year already, because it has regardless of how well Adam Ottavino and David Robertson have pitched simple due to the adjustment of everyone’s role out there, but anyway…), but that performance, combined with the sheer lack of a competitive major league offense has led to the Mets losing 10 of those 13 games to fall to .500 on the year, and six games behind those Braves in the National League East.
The question is, what else is here that the Mets can do to bolster the offense? Who else can help bolster the rotation? Can the Mets tread water for 2 1/2 months to the trade deadline under these conditions? Because, they are still unlikely to have José Quintana back in that time, Carlos Carrasco isn’t exactly what he was a few years ago and they still have to figure out how to keep both Scherzer and Verlander productive and on the mound, and navigate this slow adjustment process for Kodai Senga.
The Mets could call up Mark Vientos and Ronny Mauricio, but if they really expect they’re coming here with their superman capes and saving Metropolis, thing again.
Nah, the Mets are what they are offensively until they can transactionally evolve the offense into what it needs to be for this form of quick baseball. We can easily argue players are in slumps and all of that fun stuff and the larger sample size will reveal what their true identity is, and sure I’ll buy that with the rotation since Scherzer and Verlander have hardly pitched.
But this is the same old song with this offense which has been in this bizarre malaise dating back to September. They’re still searching for production behind the plate (and with time, that will hopefully come from Francisco Álvarez), still don’t have a competent designated hitter solution, need Francisco Lindor to not look the way he did in 2021 and Starling Marte to show a pulse, and someone other than Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo show up for the offense.
Until then, well, you know…
Around the League 🚩
The Mariners scored seven runs in the eighth inning to rally past the Astros 7-5 up in Seattle
The Cardinals benched Wilson Contreras, and still lost to the Tigers 6-5 to fall to 10-24 on the year
The Yankees edged the Rays 3-2 at Tropicana Field thanks to a three-run rally in the eighth thanks in part to a two-run single from Harrison Bader
Dustin May won a pitchers duel with Blake Snell as the Dodgers edged the Padres 2-1 in San Diego
A big difference between the Mets and Braves is that when the Braves call up their rookies they all seem to show up with Superman capes on and crush it.