The Mets rotation is bleeding out uncontrollably
The Mets imploded and allowed nine runs in just one inning to lose to the Braves in another humiliating night in Queens...
What’s up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets returned right back to losing ways, surrendering 11 unanswered runs in an embarrassing 11-6 loss to the Braves on Wednesday night (box)
1B Pete Alonso’s two-run single, RF Juan Soto’s two-run home run, and 2B Jeff McNeil’s RBI double helped build an early 6-0 lead before the third inning. However, that lead was quickly wiped out after LHP David Peterson allowed six earned runs on five hits and five walks with five strikeouts over just 3.1 innings
After RHP Reed Garrett gave up three earned runs in just 0.2 innings, RHP Paul Blackburn - making his return - gave his team five innings, allowing two earned runs on one hit and one walk with three strikeouts
The pre-game ceremony honoring 1B Pete Alonso was postponed on Wednesday due to weather, and will now take place around 6:30 PM EDT tonight
RHP Nolan McLean is expected to be called-up and will make his MLB debut against the Mariners on Saturday (story)
Roster Moves 📰
RHP Paul Blackburn returned from rehab assignment and reinstated from the Injured List
RHP Justin Hagenman optioned to Triple-A Syracuse
Playoff Race 🏁
Following Wednesday’s humiliating beatdown, the Mets have now lost 12 of their last 14. Meanwhile, the Phillies were shut out by the Reds on Wednesday. As a result, the Mets are still five games back of Philadelphia for the NL East lead. However, Cincinnati is now just one game back of the final Wild Card spot in the National League.
Per FanGraphs, the Mets now have a 78.7% chance of making the 2025 playoffs, down from 82.7% on Wednesday.
Stat of the Day 📊
The Mets have now lost leads of 4+ runs in each of their last three games - that’s the first time that has happened in franchise history
Who’s Hot? 🥵
RF Juan Soto is hitting .300/.417/.750/.1.167 with three home runs, four walks, and five RBIs over his last five games
1B Pete Alonso is hitting .429/.455/.1.000/.1.455 with three homers, three doubles, and seven RBIs over his last five games. Alonso is also now tied for the most RBIs (98) in all of baseball with Mariners C Cal Raleigh
Over his last four games, DH Starling Marte is hitting .412/.444/.824/.1.268 with seven hits, one double, two homers, and two RBIs
Over his last three games, 3B Brett Baty is hitting .417/.417/.917/.1.333 with two home runs and three RBIs
Who’s Cold? 🧊
Over his last five games, SS Francisco Lindor is hitting just .158/.333/.211/.544 with just one extra-base hit and six strikeouts
LF Brandon Nimmo is hitting just .175/.327/.275/.602 with just one home run and 15 strikeouts over his last 11 games
The Mets have now gone through an entire five-man rotation turn without a single starter completing five innings
New York has received 594 1/3 innings from its starters this season - that ranks 27th in the majors. Since June 13, the Mets rank dead last in that category
The Mets are now averaging 3.60 walks per game - the third-worst mark in all of baseball
Play of the Game 🙃
The fourth inning was the absolute stuff of nightmares for the Mets.
Owning a 6-0 lead heading into the top of the fourth, New York seemed to be in a good spot, especially with David Peterson on the mound.
However, the wheels very, very, very quickly fell off.
Peterson imploded, allowing six earned runs on five hits and five walks before being pulled from the game.
Enter Reed Garrett.
The right-handed reliever couldn’t stop the bleeding though. With two outs and the bases loaded, Garrett gave up a grand slam to Michael Harris II to seal an embarrassing nine-run inning.
A 6-0 lead quickly morphed into a 9-6 deficit.
In truth, the damage was already done by the time Harris II stepped to the plate, but Garrett’s mistake proved to be the defining point of a miserable night.
The nine-run implosion marked the Mets’ worst inning since April 2019, when they allowed 10 runs in the first inning to the Phillies.
Down on the Farm 🌾
SS Jett Williams (No. 2 prospect, Triple-A): 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 HR
CF Yonatan Henriquez (Single-A): 1-for-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 HR, 1 SB
LF Sam Robertson (Single-A): 1-for-4, 1 R, 3 RBI, 1 SB
BOX SCORES
Single-A STL | High-A BRK (PPD) | Double-A BNG (PPD) | Triple-A SYR
Today’s Game 🗓️
Match-up: Mets (64-56) vs. Braves (52-68)
Where: Citi Field - Flushing, NY
Starters: RHP Kodai Senga (7-4, 2.30 ERA) vs. RHP Bryce Elder (4-9, 6.12 ERA)
When: 7:10 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
Rock bottom, again! ✍️
Wednesday night’s humiliating collapse marked the latest low point in a long line of them over the last several weeks. And we seem to be saying that on a near-daily basis at this point with the 2025 Mets.
After the Mets jumped the Braves for a 6-0 lead over the game’s first three innings, David Peterson lost his command on the mound and, as has been the case seemingly every day with this club over the last few weeks, he, along with Reed Garrett in the fourth inning, bled the Mets out, combining to allow nine Atlanta runs and effectively knocking the wind out of the Mets and, in turn, the Mets out of the game.
That implosion is tied for the largest lead blown this season, and it also marks the first time since 1965 that the Mets have given away leads of six-plus runs in two games in a single season.
It was supposed to be an evening of continued celebration for the Mets and the fans in attendance following Pete Alonso’s franchise-record home run the night before. Not even a lengthy 95-minute rain delay and the postponement of Alonso’s pre-game ceremony celebrating his historic accomplishments could dampen the spirits in Queens.
But by the end of the night, the Mets had endured one of their most embarrassing and disheartening losses of the season, just days after they suffered in a similar manner in Milwaukee. Their latest implosion is tied for the largest lead blown this season, and it also marks the first time since 1965 that the Mets have given away leads of six-plus runs in two games in a single season.
Of course, we need to start by directing our ire at the starting rotation. We’re approaching the middle of August and yet this ballclub continues to get very little from its starters. Peterson’s meltdown and early exit continued a damaging trend of starters not going deep into games, one that has consistently hurt this team since Opening Day.
Through 120 games, the Mets are getting fewer than five innings per game from their starters. Since June 13, Mets starters have put together just 227 innings, which is the lowest total in all of baseball. Not only is that not sustainable, but it is also not good enough. Even with all of the question marks, this rotation should still be offering a lot more than that. And the fact that the likes of Kodai Senga, Frankie Montas, and Sean Manaea still can’t offer more than five innings this late into the season is deeply concerning.
Yes, president of baseball operations David Stearns deserves some blame for not acquiring another reliable starter at the trade deadline, and deserves the bulk of the criticism in general considering he is primarily responsible for constructing the rotation.
But the deadline has now long gone, and there is nothing we can do about that now. It is pointless to keep crying about it. At the end of the day, the onus is on the current starting rotation to be a lot better. And it just hasn’t been.
If things don’t change - and it is hard to believe they will at this stage of the season - then the Mets are doomed. Even if the offense finally gets it together and scores six or more runs per game the rest of the way, and even if the top of the lineup figures it out and performs to the back of their baseball cards, there is no path to success if starters continue to struggle and get pulled early.
You can’t win anything without pitching.
And, unless this current group of starters can figure out a way to give their team six or more innings per game, the new-look, revamped bullpen will soon wear down and morph back into an ineffective, hot mess.
Maybe, just maybe, the impending arrival of Nolan McLean will help to spark this rotation into life. Maybe McLean - and, at some point, Brandon Sproat - can turn into late-season saviors and give this team the kind of length it has long needed and craved.
But, if that doesn’t happen, and it would be both crazy and foolish to put too much hope on a pair of rookies, then the Mets can kiss goodbye to another deep October run. Heck, they can probably kiss goodbye to the playoffs if things don’t change given that the Reds are now just a game back of the final Wild Card spot in the National League.
Of course, as concerning as the current state of the rotation is, some of the blame for Wednesday’s horror show needs to be carried by the offense. Now, that may seem a strange thing to say given that the lineup exploded for six runs right out of the gate. It is also always going to be tough sledding to try and carry the load when starting pitchers give up a ton of runs in bunches and fail to provide any kind of length.
However, with all that said, it also isn’t good enough for a lineup this talented to offer almost nothing after that initial two-inning outburst. The offense was held scoreless over seven innings by five different relievers, while just one runner advanced into scoring position from the sixth onwards.
I’m sorry, but I don’t care if the lineup put up enough runs early to win the game. The fact that this offense couldn’t come through yet again in the later innings against a badly beaten-up Braves team is yet another glaring indictment of this team’s shortcomings.
Arguably the most infuriating thing about Wednesday night, though, is the fact that the Mets couldn’t even string two wins together. Just one night after exploding for a bunch of home runs and offering hope that a defining turning point was about to be reached, this team instead opted to crap the bed yet again and lay the biggest Godzilla-sized egg of the season so far.
From the fourth inning onwards, they showed no fight, no mental fortitude, and not one ounce of resilience.
Just one night after the biggest win in months, this team collapsed and submitted to arguably the biggest and most crushing loss of the entire year.
And, in doing so, the 2025 Mets once again proved that they are not a serious World Series contender. They aren’t even a serious playoff team right now. And Wednesday’s house of horrors loss should go down as the biggest black mark against this slumping team.
It just isn’t good enough.
Wednesday night was the new rock bottom. And there could be worse to come.
This team is only digging its own grave right now. And the hole is getting deeper and deeper by the day.
Around the League 🚩
C William Contreras had a four-RBI night as the red-hot Brewers beat the Pirates 12-5 for a 12th straight win
RHP Shohei Ohtani struck out OF Mike Trout - and former teammate - twice, although the Angels had the last laugh by winning 6-5
The Padres demolished the Giants 11-1 - led by RF Fernando Tatis Jr.’s three RBIs - to ensure sole possession of the NL West ahead of a showdown with the Dodgers this weekend
RHP Cade Horton carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning and struck out eight as the Cubs beat the Blue Jays 4-1
CF Jakob Marsee drove in a franchise-high-tying seven runs to help the Marlins beat the Guardians 13-4
This team has been a house of horrors no matter where you look.
Starting Pitching: Did Stearns drink too much of his own Kool-aid and honestly believed that these reclamation projects would work out? Or did he always know this was a house of cards and hope that the batters would make up the difference.
Hitters: If "In Search of" was still on TV, the top 4 Mets hitters could easily be a topic. This is on both the hitters and the coaches (I know many don't want to put blame on the coaches here, but way are they even on the payroll if they don't have some accountability with the team hitting?)
Baby Mets: There is clearly a disconnect between Syracuse and Queens. These players rake in AAA and then struggle mightily in the show. Rinse and repeat. I think this is a combination of coaching problems and the constant rotation of who plays each day.
Relief pitchers: To me, this group gets the least of the blame. They can only do so much if the starters can't make it past 4 innings.
Bottom line: There need to be some BIG changes this off-season. And as for playoffs, this team has no business being in the playoffs.
It's not just that the Mets gave up 7 BBs ... it's that they allowed 6 of them to score.
Both Peterson and Garrett weren't just missing the corners, they were missing by a foot. I believe those pitches are referred to as "non-competitive" nowadays. That, unfortunately, describes this team for too much of the season.