It's only getting worse for the Mets
The Mets get swept out of Milwaukee and head home with their hold on even a Wild Card berth tenuous at best
What’s up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets lost their seventh straight contest, losing 7-6 in Milwaukee on Sunday (Box)
LHP Sean Manaea started for the Mets and was not good enough, allowing four earned runs on six hits and two walks across 4+ innings
Brett Baty and Cedric Mullins both homered to help the Mets build a 5-0 lead that eventually felt like a distant memory
Ryan Helsley gave up a two out RBI hit to Joey Ortiz that tied the game at six in the bottom of the 8th
Isaac Collins launched a walk-off homer off Edwin Díaz to send the Mets back to Queens absolutely reeling
The Just Mets Podcast 🎙️
Listen to this week’s JM Podcast as Mets Therapy’s Andrew Claudio commiserates with Rich about the Mets coming apart at the seams over the last two weeks:
Playoff Race 🏁
The Mets obviously lost again on Sunday while the Phillies won, increasing their lead in the NL East to 5.5 games
Meanwhile, with the Reds win in Pittsburgh the Mets are now just 1.5 games ahead of Cincinnati for the final wild card spot.
Per FanGraphs, the Mets now have an 77.5% chance of making the playoffs in 2025:
Who’s Cold 🧊
After getting off to a fast start in his first three outings with the Mets, RHP Ryan Helsley has now given up three earned runs in his last two outings spanning just one inning
Play of the Game 🌟
This game started out stellar for the Mets and for much of the contest looked like it could be the game the club had been searching for to get things turned around.
How wrong that thought turned out to be.
The middle part of the game brought plenty of moments that forebode the final result, but the play of the game surely has to be Isaac Collins walk-off home run against Mets closer Edwin Diaz.
Down on the Farm 🌾
The Mets are promoting Jonah Tong, Carson Benge, Jett Williams and Ryan Clifford to Triple-A Syracuse (Athletic)
RHP Nolan McLean (No. 3 Prospect, Triple-A): 4 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 7 K, 1 HR
IF Marco Vargas (No. 22 Prospect, High-A): 1-for-4, 2B, 3 RBI
IF/OF A.J. Ewing (No. 8 Prospect, High-A): 2-for-5, 2 RBI
RHP Jonah Tong (No. 2 Prospect, Double-A): 5 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 8 K
BOX SCORES
Single-A STL | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR
Today’s Game 🗓️
The Mets are off today and will return home to begin a three game set with Atlanta tomorrow
Can it actually get worse from here? ✍️
If this isn’t rock bottom, I don’t want to know what is.
The problem is, there is plenty of season for all of this to get worse, and if you look back only to 2021, you know the Mets are capable of writing a new chapter in the pro sports manual of How to Fall Completely Apart.
We can also include those splendid Septembers in 2007 and 2008 in that book, and I’d throw 2023 into that conversation, but that team was generally terrible from the beginning.
After limping through a mediocre June and early July, immediately following the all-star break, the Mets seemed to stabilize the ship, winning seven straight games heading into the final series before the trade deadline.
That three-game set in San Diego did not go well, but with the additions the club made to the bullpen and in center field, it looked like the roster was poised to go on a run coming down the stretch.
Well, they certainly have, but it’s been a full-out sprint in the wrong direction.
Following Sunday’s absolute meltdown in Milwaukee, the Mets have now dropped 11 of their last 12 games.
Their revamped bullpen has shown increasing cracks, though the real culprit for that, and really most of the team’s issues, is the starting pitching and their gross incompetence and inability to pitch even into the fifth inning much of the time.
The Mets have not had a single starting pitcher not named David Peterson fire six or more innings in two months. That’s not just embarrassing at this level, it’s simply not sustainable in any way, shape, or form.
Sunday’s game was particularly telling of a story that has become all too familiar.
With an overly taxed relief corps, the Mets desperately needed Sean Manaea to get deep in the game. Edwin Diaz and Brooks Raley were really the only two fully rested arms the club had in the bullpen, and if there was ever a time for Manaea to step up and deliver seven money innings, it was right now.
Instead, he struggled through 4+ disappointing frames, forcing guys like Reed Garrett, Tyler Rogers, and Ryan Helsley into the game, all of whom got bumped out of the roles they were intended to be in, and did not look as effective as they generally do collectively.
Manaea and company combined to blow a five-run lead, and the game came to a fitting close when Diaz, of all people, surrendered a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 9th—just the 2nd long ball he’s allowed all year.
In just a week, the Mets have quickly become an afterthought in the NL East, and now sit just 1.5 games ahead of the Reds for the final wild card spot.
Like, what else is there to say? Seriously? They can’t pitch, they can’t hit, they’re committing too many errors, there are too many other plays not made, there are mental mistakes and other lapses, the at-bats are getting emptier and emptier from Francisco Lindor and Brandon Nimmo, and all they ever say about it is they’re trying hard.
It’s not hard to figure out why they’re falling deeper and deeper into the baseball abyss.
Things won’t get any easier with the Braves and Mariners coming in for a six-game homestand, but at the end of the day, the Mets aren’t really even getting beat by the opposition. They’re not getting competitive, let alone competent starting pitching efforts, and it’s consistently put the team behind the eight ball.
Here are some simple, yet glaring statistics:
Since June 13, the Mets only have one starting pitcher who has logged more than 50 innings, a span of 49 games
David Peterson - 3.71 ERA, 53.1 IP
Clay Holmes - 4.22 ERA, 49 IP
Kodai Senga - 5.31 ERA, 20.1 IP
Frankie Montas - 6.68 ERA, 33.2 IP
Sean Manaea - 4.33 ERA, 27.1 IP in 6 appearances (5 starts)
SP, since 6/13: 220 IP (4.48 IP/game) - 5.07 ERA
RP, since 6/13: 209.2 IP (4.3 IP/Game) - 4.89 ERA
Pitching overall, since 6/13: 4.99 ERA
Offense, since 6/13: .224/.296/.374
Clay Holmes gets the ball tomorrow night against the Braves, and he hasn’t gotten more than 16 outs in a start since the beginning of June.
If there was ever a time for this team to show some fight and say enough is enough, this homestand is it, but after watching this club for the better part of four and a half months, it’s become harder to envision that happening.
Around the League 🚩
Noelvi Marte and Spencer Steer each homered and drove in four in the Reds 14-8 win in Pittsburgh
Carlos Correa and Jose Altuve each homered for the Astros in Houston’s 7-1 thrashing of the Yankees
Casey Mize struck out five in five innings and earned his 11th win of the season as the Tigers topped the Angels 9-5
Zack Wheeler punched out seven Rangers in five frames to lead the Phillies to a 4-2 win in Texas
The 220ish hitting #9 guy in the Brewers lineup proves to be a tougher out in the late innings of a close game than anyone the Mets can throw up there
June 13 really was the pivot day, wasn't it.
You know, I keep thinking about an old Casey Stengel story from back in the days of the Yankees dynasty. A reporter asked him what made the team so good. Stengel called over a young outfielder (I don't remember who) who was warming up for the game.
"Kid," Stengel asked, "what are you hittin'?"
"Gee skip, I don't know."
"How many homers you got?"
"I got a few Case, I don't really know how many."
"What about RBIs? How many runs you driven in?"
"Sorry, I don't really know the number."
"Okay kid, go back to what you were doin'."
Stengel turned to the reporter.
"That's what makes us so good," he said. "That kid comes to the ballpark, he ain't thinkin' about nothin' but beatin' ya."