The Mets don't want to go down this road!
Failing to make the playoffs would be an all-time disappointment for this franchise. And Wednesday's loss was more of the same and provided no evidence the Mets can turn this around.
What’s up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets were blown out in an ugly 10-3 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Wednesday night (box)
RHP Jonah Tong was shelled early, allowing five earned runs on seven hits across just two innings while walking two and striking out one
RHP Clay Holmes and LHP Sean Manaea piggybacked out of the bullpen, allowing a combined three runs over two innings
RHP Ryan Helsley continued his recent resurgence by firing two scoreless innings of relief, striking out two
C Francisco Alvarez and RF Juan Soto both hit home runs to score the only runs of the game for the Mets, who managed just four hits all night
RHP Kodai Senga’s velocity was down during his live BP session, putting a return to the majors this season in doubt (SNY)
Roster Moves 📰
OF Tyrone Taylor returned from rehab assignment and reinstated from the Injured List
OF Jose Siri designated for assignment
Playoff Race 🏁
Luckily, the Mets were not punished too much for laying an absolute egg at Wrigley Field on Wednesday night.
The Reds lost to the Pirates in extra-innings, while the Diamondbacks also lost to the Dodgers in 11 innings. As a result, the Mets are still one game ahead of both Arizona and Cincinnati for the final Wild Card spot with four games remaining:
Playoff scenarios and tiebreakers:
The Mets own the tiebreaker against the Giants (season series: 4-2) - if they finish with identical records, the Mets would eliminate the Giants. As such, the Giants have now been eliminated since they can only finish in a tie at best with the Mets
The Mets own the tiebreaker against the Cardinals (season series: 5-2) - if they finish with identical records, the Mets would eliminate the Cardinals. As such, the Cardinals have now been eliminated from playoff contention since they can only finish in a tie at best with the Mets
The Mets do not own the tiebreaker against the Reds (season series: 2-4) - if they finish with identical records, the Reds would eliminate the Mets
The Mets and Diamondbacks finished their season series tied (3-3), but the Diamondbacks maintain a better record against the NL West than the Mets do against the NL East, so Arizona would eliminate the Mets
Per Fangraphs, the Mets have a 67.7% chance of making the 2025 playoffs. Meanwhile, the Reds’ odds have plummeted to just 19.4%, while the Diamondbacks have just a 11.7% chance of making the postseason.
Play of the Game 🙃
There were a few contenders for today’s POTG.
However, arguably the biggest turning point came in the third inning.
With Jonah Tong struggling and having already given up a couple of runs, he needed his defense to step up.
Instead, his defense let him down.
With two runners on and no outs, Moisés Ballesteros hit an RBI single down the line, a ball that Mark Vientos should have dealt with.
Vientos was playing in and on the line, and his inability to make a routine play led to a run being scored, with the Cubs piling on five runs in the third inning alone.
As bad as the starting pitching has been, sloppy defense has also doomed the Mets as of late.
Stat of the Day 📊
OF Tyrone Taylor made a clutch play to prevent a run from being scored in the first inning - his throw home clocked in at 95.2 mph, which is both the Mets’ fastest outfield assist of the season and the fastest of Taylor’s career, per Sarah Langs (MLB.com)
Who’s Hot? 🔥
RHP Ryan Helsley has now recorded five straight scoreless outings, allowing just two hits and two walks across that six-inning span
Over his last five games, C Francisco Álvarez is hitting .333/.412/.800/.1.212 with four runs scored, one double, two home runs, and six RBIs
Over his last six games, RF Juan Soto is hitting .409/.519/.773/.1.291 with two doubles, two homers, four runs scored, five walks, and six RBIs
Down on the Farm 🌾
Double-A Binghamton won the 2025 Eastern League Championship with an 8-2 win over the Erie Seawolves.
It is Binghamton’s fourth EL championship in franchise history, and its first since 2014.
3B Jacob Reimer (No. 6 prospect, Double-A): 1-for-4, HR, 2 R, RBI, BB
CF A.J. Ewing (No. 7 prospect, Double-A): 2-for-5, 2 R
RHP Jack Wenninger (No. 13 prospect, Double-A): 5 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 11 K
C Chris Suero (No. 15 prospect, Double-A): 2-for-4, HR, 4 RBI
RF D’Andre Smith (Double-A): 3-for-5, 2 R, 3 RBIs
SCORES
Double-A BNG
Today’s Game 🗓️
Match-up: Mets (81-77) at Cubs (89-69)
Where: Wrigley Field - Chicago, IL
Starters: RHP Nolan McLean (4-1, 1.27 ERA) vs. LHP Shota Imanaga (9-7, 3.37 ERA)
When: 7:40 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY | MLBN
No matter what happens this week, the Mets are becoming an all-time disappointment…✍️
Just when you think you couldn’t be let down anymore, the 2025 New York Mets strike again.
Just one night after offering a slice of hope thanks to Francisco Alvarez’s heroics, the Mets failed to build any momentum from what could have been a defining win on Tuesday.
Instead, this team crapped the bed and once again proved that they are just not a good baseball team.
Beyond that, the 2025 Mets are becoming an all-time disappointment, no matter what happens this week. Because, even if they make the playoffs, there’s just no evidence to suggest they’re getting past next week.
Okay, sure, there wasn’t too much damage done in terms of the Wild Card race on Wednesday with both the Reds and the Diamondbacks losing in extra innings. But the fact that the Mets remain a game ahead owes more to the fact that the teams below them haven’t been able to deliver the final dagger through the heart more than anything else.
That the Reds and Diamondbacks are even alive today given the seasons they’ve had to date is more of a function of the Mets ceding all of their ground to them, rather than those teams truly playing well enough and catching the Mets.
The point stands that this team seems totally incapable of playing good baseball for any reasonable amount of time. Furthermore, they seem to mentally switch off immediately after securing a big win, throwing away any positive capital in an eye blink.
As clutch as the offense was on Tuesday, as much as that win could have been a potential page-turner on a bust of a season, the Mets failed to write a second page in what could have been a new chapter on Wednesday.
Instead, they threw the new novel in the garbage and instead went back to writing the same crappy old story they’ve been spinning all year long.
Bad starting pitching. Lack of clutch hits. And too many mental errors and sloppy plays on the mound and in the field.
Rinse, wash, and repeat.
Man, I’ve reached my limit with this team. I don’t think I can stomach any more Mets baseball this season, I really don’t. This team is just so hard to watch, so hard to root for, and, as Wednesday’s loss so emphatically proved, they are incapable of going on a real run.
Two steps forward, 10 steps back.
With four games to go, it is mathematically likely that the Mets will make the playoffs given that the Reds and the Diamondbacks can’t seem to land the knockout punch.
But, do you have any confidence in this team after what we witnessed last night? Or for the past 3 1/2 months?
I certainly don’t.
For starters, we once again saw the perils of pinning all your hope on rookie starters. For as good as Nolan McLean and Brandon Sproat have been, Jonah Tong has now laid two gargantuan Godzilla-sized eggs on the mound. He’s also allowed at least five runs for the second time in three starts.
His outing on Wednesday was particularly tough, and he put his team in a hole they couldn’t recover from.
But I don’t blame Tong. Not at all.
The Mets are asking WAY too much from him. Tong isn’t ready for the major leagues and certainly isn’t ready for this moment. Again, his presence right now is a function of Sean Manaea, Clay Holmes, David Peterson, Frankie Montas - among others - for being utterly terrible for far too long and helping to put the Mets in this position with four games to go. And because of that failed pitching philosophy this year, coupled with David Stearns’ failure to obtain another starter at the Trade Deadline, the Mets have been left with no choice but to throw young pitchers into the heat of the fire.
Of course, Tong wasn’t helped out by his defense, with Mark Vientos once again displaying just how bad a defender he is at the hot corner. Why he was in there in this game is beyond me. Screw the matchups - they can’t play defense so they need their best possible run preventers in the game at all times.
There’s no arguing that point. It was a bad move to have Vientos in the game on Wednesday night.
We’ve seen the upside to that strategy, but we’ve also seen the floor twice now with Tong. And the pressure and the stakes won’t get any easier in the Wild Card round.
It is simply unfair to expect McLean, Sproat, and Tong to help lead the Mets to glory in October. It is a foolish plan that is likely to blow up in this organization’s face. The Mets simply don’t have the pitching required in order to go on a deep run in October, and they risk harming the future development of their best prospects by continuing to put them out for slaughter night after night.
Of course, there were other issues outside of Tong last night, too.
Clay Holmes added to the implosion with a wild pitch, and then just a boneheaded mental mistake by standing around on the mound and not covering the plate, which allowed Pete Crow-Armstrong to score from second base. Sean Manaea, piggybacking Holmes out of the bullpen, was not good. Again. And the offense could only manage four hits all night long.
Manager Carlos Mendoza can keep on saying that the Mets have got to play better - yes, I want to throw the TV out the window every time he repeats that line, too - but at some point, you actually have to back up those hollow words with tangible actions.
And as Wednesday proved, they don’t seem capable of doing so.
All in all, the 2025 Mets might go down as an all-time disappointment, no matter what happens the rest of the way.
But based on what we witnessed last night, the end of the road is probably not that far away.
Around the League 🚩
OF Aaron Judge hit his 50th and 51st home runs as the Yankees beat the White Sox 8-1 - becoming the fourth player in MLB history to post four separate seasons of 50 or more home runs
C Cal Raleigh blasted his 59th and 60th home runs in a 9-2 win over the Rockies as Seattle clinched its first AL West title since 2001
RHP Paul Skenes finished his 2025 season with a 1.97 ERA after tossing six scoreless innings in a 4-3 win over the Reds
The Guardians now hold a one-game lead in the AL Central thanks to RHP Tanner Bibee allowing just one run over six innings in a 5-1 win over the Tigers
LHP Garrett Crochet tossed eight scoreless innings in a 7-1 win over Toronto with the Red Sox now on the cusp of qualifying for the playoffs
OF Kyle Schwarber crushed his 55th and 56th homers as the Phillies hit a franchise-record eight home runs in an 11-1 win over the Marlins
There were two occurrences where I felt Baty makes the play at third if he's there. With how the defense has played lately, he has to be in there instead of Vientos.
Great writing. I'm right there with you with this team.