Mets offense is dead again, lose 3-2 to the Brewers to drop another series
It was the same old story as the Mets fell to season worst nine games under .500 while the 2023 campaign continues to go unfathomably off script
What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets fell to the Brewers 3-2 on Thursday night (Box)
The Mets lost three out of four against Milwaukee this week and did not win a single series in June
Brett Baty and Brandon Nimmo hit back-to-back homers in the 3rd inning for the Mets only two runs of the night
Max Scherzer kept the Brew Crew off the board for the first five innings but surrendered a game tying two run blast to Victor Caratini in the 6th
With New York trailing 3-2 in the 7th, Starling Marte bounced into a bases loaded double play in the 7th
Marte had a chance to redeem himself in the 9th inning as he came to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded, but he struck out on three pitches to end the game
The loss dropped the Mets June record to an abysmal 7-18
Who’s Hot 🔥
RHP Max Scherzer has gone at least six innings in three consecutive starts, and has a 2.25 ERA in those three outings - the Mets are 9-5 in games started by Scherzer
Injury Updates 🏥
LHP José Quintana (rib surgery) is slated to start for Triple-A Syracuse on Friday, although that could change depending on the air quality in Syracuse. He could also need an additional rehab start to build his pitch count up
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (36-45) vs. Giants (45-36)
Where: Citi Field – Flushing, NY
Starters: RHP Carlos Carrasco (2-3, 6.19 ERA) vs RHP Alex Cobb (5-2, 3.09 ERA)
When: 7:10 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
This wasn’t in the brochure ✍️
If you had told anyone back in February the Mets would not win as many games as they did in 2022, I don’t think it would have raised a ton of eyebrows. Winning 101 games is difficult, obviously, and a lot has to go right. But even if hitting triple digits wasn’t going to be in the cards again, most people fully expected this to be a 90-plus win playoff team again.
Instead, halfway through the season and the mere idea of being relevant is a pipe dream for the Mets. They’re far more likely to lose at least 90 than they are to win 90.
In the first 81 games of the year the Mets went an astonishing 36-45. They’re on pace to win only 72 games and finish with the worst record the year following a 100-win season than any team since the 1918 White Sox.
Prior to the season getting underway, we were openly thinking about potential midseason trade targets the Mets could pursue at the deadline, and instead we’re wondering who will be shipped out of Queens.
This has become a sad state of affairs and it’s hard to argue with the opinion that morale in both the clubhouse, the crowd, and on couches around the Metropolitan area are at an all-time low.
We’ve suffered through bad Mets seasons before. But I honestly cannot remember a campaign in my lifetime that began with such high expectations and crashed and burned so dramatically, so quickly.
There are quite frankly next to no positives with this team right now, aside from maybe the development of Francisco Álvarez and Brett Baty, and it’s fair to assume the experience they’re gaining right now will pay dividends in 2024 and beyond (assuming Buck Showalter doesn’t continue to pinch hit for them, as he did with Baty on Thursday).
If building for the future has become the main objective this season it’s unfathomable why Mark Vientos and Ronny Mauricio are both still in Triple-A and not in Queens playing every day.
The Mets have become an old, boring, in a lot of ways unathletic team, and finding a way to address a lot of those issues on the fly is going to be a challenging endeavor.
This team has developed a knack for consistently finding a way to snatch defeat from the hands of victory, and has endured more gut-wrenching losses in three months than anyone should have to experience in a full year.
Is there time for this to dramatically turn back the other way?
Sure, I guess. Yeah, it’s conceivable.
But I don’t think anyone that watches this team everyday would make a convincing argument for that to come to fruition.
I feel like we’ve all spent months waiting for this ship to right itself, because for so long we felt this team was too good to continue to struggle. But now that we’re at the season’s halfway point, I think we have to all be honest with ourselves that this is who the 2023 Mets are, which is a complete and total flop.
And in conjunction with that, we need to adjust our mental expectations and rethink what we’re hoping to see from this team during the final three months. The final two months could and probably should look a whole lot different than the first four do, even if it means some difficult decisions with some fan favorites are made. In the end, their shortcomings are obvious - they’re too old, they lack modern athleticism, they’re not well coached, they’re too stubborn in their ways, proving time and time again they aren’t able to adjust to the new rules and the new pace of play.
Needless to say this was not how this all was supposed to go. This was not in the brochure. As Billy Eppler put it the other day, the deviation from their forecast is wider than expected.
In other words, they aren’t good.
Around the League 🚩
Chris Bassitt fired six scoreless innings and struck out 12 in the Blue Jays 2-1 win over the Giants
The Royals got a walk-off two run double from Freddy Fermin in the bottom of the 10th to beat the Guardians 4-3
Miami scored a run in the 8th and a run in the 9th and shut out the Red Sox 2-0
Alex Bregman crushed a grand slam and Kyle Tucker pounded a three run shot as the Astros pummelled the Cardinals 14-0
Shohei Ohtani blasted his MLB leading 29th home run but was not enough, as the Angels fell to the White Sox 9-7