Are the Mets cooked?

New York has a players only meeting after 9-2 loss to Pirates. Plus, how things just aren't looking right for this team right now.

What’s up with the Mets? ⚾

• The Mets were blown out for the second straight night by the last place Pirates, losing 9-2 (box)

• New York has now lost 12 of their last 15 games and has gone five straight series without a series win (0-4-1)

• RHP Paul Blackburn was terrible after staying in the game following a rain delay, allowing three runs on six hits in just one-plus inning of work – he now has a 7.71 ERA this season

• OFs Juan Soto and Brandon Nimmo drove in the lone runs for the club on yet another meek day for this offense

• RHP Huascar Brazobán continued his massive regression this season, allowing four earned runs while recording just one out in relief

• Manager Carlos Mendoza was ejected in the 4th inning for arguing balls and strikes

• The Mets went 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position last night, are averaging 3 runs per game over their last 12 games, and have now scored two runs or less in eight of their last 12 games

• Following Saturday night’s blowout loss, the club held a players only meeting

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Injury Updates 🏥

• LHP Sean Manaea (strained right oblique, left elbow discomfort) will pitch a bullpen session this afternoon in New York, after which the club will make a decision on next steps

• OF/DH Jesse Winker (right oblique strain) will begin a rehab assignment today in High-A Brooklyn

• LHP Brooks Raley (recovering from Tommy John surgery) was moved to Double-A Binghamton as the club ramps up his rehab workload

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Play of the Game 🌟

In a game where the Mets were bludgeoned yet again by an awful Pirates team, Pittsburgh’s first of several run-scoring hits is just as good as any for the play of the game.

After an hour and a half rain delay, the Mets elected to keep Paul Blackburn in the game. This RBI single to Joey Bart not only tied the game but was one of five straight hits that Blackburn allowed in the second inning before getting yanked with the bases loaded and nobody out.

This game did stay close until a crooked eighth inning but if we’re being honest, this thing was probably over before it even started with the way this team is playing right now.

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Down on the Farm 🌾

• CF Drew Gilbert (No. 9 prospect, Triple-A): 2-for-5, 2 HR (5, 6), 3 RBI, 3 runs scored

• SS/OF Jett Williams (No. 1 prospect, Double-A): 0-for-2, 3 BB, 2 SB, run scored

• LHP Brooks Raley (rehab, Double-A): 1.2 IP, H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K

• CF A.J. Ewing (No. 26 prospect, High-A): 2-for-4, 2B, 2 RBI, BB, 2 SB, 2 runs scored

BOX SCORES

Single-A STL | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR

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Today’s Game 🗓️

Match-up: Mets (48-36) vs. Pirates (35-50)

Where: PNC Park — Pittsburgh, PA

Starters: RHP Frankie Montas (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP Mike Burrows (1-2, 4.45 ERA)

When: 1:35 PM EDT

Where to Watch: WPIX

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Something ain’t right with these Mets right now… ✍️

I’m genuinely not even sure what I’m supposed to say right now.

Things have been looking bleak for a couple weeks now, but what we’ve witnessed from the Mets this weekend in Pittsburgh has been a completely new low point in a season that is now leaning into the tailspin.

Facing off against one of the worst teams in the National League, the Mets have now been outscored 18-3 over their last two games. Sadly, this has only been an extension for their abhorrent play that has gone on for just over two weeks at this point. The alarm bells are officially ringing as this team has largely appeared listless on the mound, at the plate, in the field and even in the dugout.

You’d be hard pressed to even recognize them as the team we’d come to love just a few weeks back…

Just over two weeks ago, this team was 21 games over .500 and owned the best record in Major League Baseball. Now, they’re struggling to find their way out of a paper bag even when they’re facing some of the dregs of the league.

When this rough stretch started and the club got walloped (and swept) by the Rays it was frustrating, but you chalked it up to the Mets just running into some overdue bad luck against a team that had been playing some red hot baseball at the time. But what has happened in the weeks since has raised the alarms in a major, major way.

This is a team that proceeded to go 2-5 against a Braves team that has been under .500 for the entirety of the 2025 season and hasn’t played well at all before, between, or after their two series against the Mets. New York also largely got their asses kicked by the Phillies when they lost two of three to Philadelphia last weekend. Since that series, the Phillies have gone 1-4 and have scored one run or less in four of those five games.

And now, not only can the Mets not beat the Pittsburgh Pirates – the fucking Pirates! – but they can’t even compete with them? Something just ain’t right here, man, and I’m not entirely sure what to make of it.

Over these last few weeks, absolutely nothing has gone right for this team. Ever since Kodai Senga went down with another hamstring injury on June 12th, the last day before this free fall began, things have completely spiraled out of control. Not only have they lost Senga to injury, but they also lost Tylor Megill to the injured list and Griffin Canning for the rest of the season with a ruptured Achilles.

The injuries have been huge strokes of bad luck, for sure, but most of what has happened during this stretch can largely be attributed to extremely poor play, and what has appeared to be a lack of the guts and guile that this team became famous for just one season ago.

After Saturday night’s blowout, the Mets have now lost 12 of their last 15 games. In that span, the club has been outscored 93-48 – that’s a negative 45 run differential! That means that over that time span, the Mets are giving up an average of 6.2 runs per game while only scoring an average of 3.2 runs per game. Not only is this team losing, but they are getting their teeth kicked in on the regular by a bunch of teams that have no business doing so.

And while I do have some sympathy for the struggles of the starting rotation after they’ve lost so many bodies over these last couple weeks, I will give absolutely zero grace to a Mets starting lineup that has underachieved for this entire damn season.

Even before this stretch, though the overall numbers looked pretty good, there has never been a single point of this 2025 season where the Mets offense has been operating to the level that they were meant to when assembled over the offseason. For the first two-plus months of the year, the team didn’t even need them to because their pitching had been performing so incredibly.

Throughout the early season this pitching staff picked up the offense more times than I could count. But now, when the rotation has suffered multiple critical wounds and the bullpen has begun to leak oil, the Mets have needed their – at one time – vaunted offense to finally do their part and pick up the rest of the team. And they have failed miserably doing so.

Over their last 12 games, in particular, this Mets offense has scored two runs or less eight times. Unsurprisingly, the Mets are 0-8 in those games.

The biggest area they continually struggle in is in pressure situations, as this offense has consistently been one of the worst teams with runners in scoring position this season. Following last night’s 2-for-8 performance (which is honestly as good as it gets for this team right now), they rank 29th in baseball with a .218 average with RISP. The only team worse than the Mets in that category is the Chicago White Sox, whose 27-56 record is the second worst in the entire league.

To make matters worse, the team has also had to demote former top prospects Francisco Álvarez and Luisangel Acuña to the minor leagues during this stretch because of their glaringly bad performances at the plate.

Even if you thought the Mets were overachieving to start this season – and maybe they were – I’m not sure that even the most negative fans saw this type of season-altering spiral coming.

For a team that is just one year removed from a season full of toughness, resilience, grit and confidence, I am struggling to see any of that right now. And while you can’t always tell those things from afar, it sure hasn’t looked as if this group is carrying the same spirit or energy as they did one year ago.

Things have gotten so bad that last night the club resorted to a players only meeting. While it’s the first of its kind this year, that now marks the second time in two years that this team required a players only meeting in the month of June to try and get things turned around.

The meeting last year famously wound up having some pretty remarkable results, but that is not something that you can simply bank on year-after-year. Eventually, this team is going to have to band together on the field and get their shit together in order to veer this ship away from the iceberg.

Now look, it is possible that this is just one of those ridiculously bad stretches in a 162-game season in a sport that is often full of extremes that ultimately even out by year’s end. But right now, seeing what I’m seeing and with the results looking the way that they have, something just feels off…

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Around the League 🚩

• Hall of Famer and former MVP Dave Parker passed away at the age of 74

• Cubs OF Kyle Tucker homered against his former club as Chicago beat the Astros, 12-3

• Braves C Sean Murphy hit a grand slam late to help carry Atlanta to a 6-1 win over the Phillies

• The A’s beat up the Yankees and put an end to Clark Schmidt’s scoreless innings streak in a 7-0 victory

• The Marlins rallied in extra inning for their sixth straight win, beating the Dbacks by an 8-7 score