The Mets playoff hopes are slipping away after latest sloppy loss

New York loses a sloppy game to the Orioles, falling further back in the NL playoff race. Plus, what in the world happened to José Quintana?

What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️

• The Mets lost an ugly, sloppy game to the Orioles on Tuesday night, falling by a 9-5 score (box)

• LHP José Quintana was awful once again, allowing seven earned runs on eight hits and two walks over five innings

• Quintana allowed two more home runs in Tuesday’s loss, raising his season total to 22

• DH J.D. Martínez went 1-for-4 with a three-run home run (14) in the loss

• C Francisco Álvarez went 0-for-3 with a walk and a run scored one night after clubbing the first walk-off home run of his career

• After cutting the lead to 7-5, the Mets made a series of mistakes on a single lpay as Brandon Nimmo misplayed a fly ball in an attempt to protect his ailing shoulder and LHP Danny Young threw a ball into the outfield, allowing two runs to score and put the game out of reach

• New York’s offense produced just five hits on Tuesday night while striking out 11 times – it’s the third straight game they’ve struck out at least 11 times in a game

• The Mets have now fallen to 2.5 games out of a playoff spot, it’s the furthest out they’ve been in the standings since July 8th

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Playoff Race 🏁

The Braves, Dbacks and Padres all won on Tuesday night while the Mets lost. New York is now 2.5 games behind Atlanta for the Wild Card spot, 5.5 games behind Arizona and 6.5 games behind San Diego.

There are 36 games remaining.

Per FanGraphs, the Mets have a 19.4% chance of making the postseason.

New York has the ninth most difficult schedule in MLB the rest of the way.

Tiebreakers:

• vs. ATL: 5-5

• vs. ARI: 2-2

• vs. SD: 3-0

• vs. CIN: 2-1

• vs. STL: 4-2 (finished)

• vs. SF: 2-4 (finished)

• vs. PIT: 5-2 (finished)

• vs. CHC: 4-3 (finished)

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Injury Updates 🏥

• OF Brandon Nimmo (right shoulder discomfort) returned to the Mets lineup on Tuesday night

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Down on the Farm 🌾

• RF DJ Stewart (Triple-A): 1-for-4, walk-off HR (2)

• CF Alex Ramírez (No. 26 prospect, Double-A): 1-for-4, 3B, 2 RBI

• RHP/DH Nolan McLean (No. 9 prospect, Double-A): 6 IP, 4 H, ER, 0 BB, 5 K (win)

• RHP Jack Wenninger (No. 30 prospect, High-A): 5.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, BB, 6 K

BOX SCORES

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

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Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (65-61) vs. Orioles (74-53)

Where: Citi Field — Flushing, NY

Starters: LHP Sean Manaea (9-5, 3.46 ERA) vs. LHP Cole Irvin (6-5, 4.85 ERA)

When: 1:10 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY, MLB Network

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What the hell happened to José Quintana? ✍️

Only one year ago, one of the major questions on the mind of Mets fans was how different could things have been if they only had a healthy José Quintana for the full season.

After signing him to a two-year contract as a pivotal middle-of-the-rotation starter, the Mets were bitten by bad luck last season when Quintana was struck by a ball in Spring Training, knocking him out until late July with a stress fracture in his ribs. By the time he’d return, a once hyped-up season was already in the dust pan as the 2023 Mets sold what they could after a massively disappointing first four months.

What we saw from Quintana the remainder of the year was promising, though, as he gave the Mets something to look forward to in their rotation in 2024. Over 13 starts to close out the season, the veteran left-hander pitched to a 3.57 ERA, 3.52 ERA and a 117 ERA+. And while they weren’t expecting any sort of ace-like performance, the Mets were clearly relying on Quintana to be a stable force in their rotation this season.

It’s easy to forget now but with Kodai Senga on the shelf, Quintana was the Opening Day starter for this team. So, what the hell happened?

With yet another disasterclass in the books after Tuesday night’s loss, Quintana has proved himself to be the least reliable pitcher the Mets have in their rotation at this stage of a season that is currently hanging in the balance. Overall this season, Quintana has pitched to a 4.57 ERA and only seems to be getting worse as time marches forward.

In his last two starts alone, Quintana has almost single-handedly blown a five-run lead to the last place Oakland A’s and allowed seven runs to the Orioles in last night’s non-competitive outing. He was so bad last night he even gave up a home run to James McCann of all people!

And that’s truly been one of the most bizarre and outrageous parts of Quintana’s downfall in 2024 – the long ball.

Just last year, Quintana was touted as one of the best pitchers in all of baseball when it came to keeping the ball in the park. In 45 starts from 2022-23, Quintana only allowed a total of 13 home runs. This season, Quintana has allowed 22 home runs in 25 starts. With well over a month to go, that is already the third most home runs Quintana has ever allowed in a single season and the most since 2018 when he was with the Cubs.

Opposing also currently have a .438 slugging percentage against Quintana this season, which is the second-worst mark of his career outside of 2021 (.483). The difference there, of course, is that despite the high slugging percentage, Quintana was still able to limit the damage to doubles/triples as he only allowed 12 home runs that entire season.

It’s hard to pinpoint just why this is happening to Quintana at this point – is there an adjustment that he could make, is he injured or has father time finally gotten to him? – but what is evident is that the quality and location of his pitches has been poor all season long. Things have gotten so difficult for the veteran lefty that manager Carlos Mendoza was asked if his rotation spot was in jeopardy following last night’s loss.

“We haven’t gotten to that point,” Mendoza told reporters. “Right now, he’s on our rotation and we’re going to need him.”

It wasn’t exactly the biggest endorsement in the world but lucky for Quintana (and perhaps unlucky for the Mets), this organization doesn’t really many other options right now to replace him. Top prospect Brandon Sproat has only made two starts in Triple-A and has been hit hard, and this organization is not going to mess with their No. 1 ranked prospect at this stage. It’s also important to remember that he started this season out in Single-A, so he’s already made several leaps over the last five months.

Outside of Sproat, Christian Scott has been on the injured list since July and was struggling to adapt to the major leagues before he got hurt, Tylor Megill has failed every time the Mets have called him up over the last two years, and they’re not moving José Buttó out of the bullpen – he’s been too valuable there.

So really, unless Scott comes back fully ready to go and things fully click for them, there really isn’t any other choice here. The Mets need José Quintana to pitch the way he did over the last several seasons; they need the man they thought they were signing two offseasons ago. If not, things are looking pretty bleak.

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Around the League 🚩

• Padres OF Jurickson Profar crushed a three-run, go-ahead home run to complete yet another come-from-behind win for the club, this time against the Twins

• The Braves out-pitched the Phillies and won 3-1, thanks to a great outing from RHP Reynaldo López and a shutdown effort from their bullpen

• Dbacks CF Corbin Carroll connected on his 14th home run of the season as Arizona held off the Marlins, 3-1

• The Guardians used a four-run top of the 10th inning to defeat the Yankees by a 9-5 score in the Bronx

• Dodgers CF Jason Heyward hit a pinch-hit, go-ahead three-run homer in the bottom of the 8th to defeat the Mariners, 6-3