The sun will come up tomorrow (we hope)

The Mets lose their fifth straight game in dejecting fashion. Plus, diagnosing the problem with this team’s core.

What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️

• The Mets lost their fifth straight game on Saturday, falling to the Giants by a score of 7-2 (box)

• RHP Edwin Díaz entered the game in the 9th inning with a 2-1 lead but blew his 4th save of the season

• Díaz has now blown the last four games he’s pitched with a lead in the 9th inning (three blown saves)

• RHP Sean Reid-Foley did not help matters in extra innings, allowing five runs to score in the top of the 10th

• The Mets were held scoreless in the 10th inning for the seventh time this season

• 3B Brett Baty clubbed his fourth home run of the season in the loss which gave the club the lead in the 7th

• RHP Luis Severino had yet another impressive start, allowing just one run on two hits and six strikeouts in seven innings

• New York is now 9-22 over the last 31 games played, the worst record in baseball during that time span

• The Mets reportedly acquired 2B Pablo Reyes from the Red Sox in exchange for cash considerations – he will likely be sent to Triple-A Syracuse

• Francisco Lindor is trying sports goggles in an effort to solve a potential vision issue (New York Post)

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Injury Updates 🏥

• C Francisco Álvarez (thumb surgery) took batting practice for the first time on Saturday

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Down on the Farm 🌾

• SS Luisangel Acuña (No. 5 prospect, Triple-A): 4-for-5, 2B, SB (17), run scored

• 1B Luke Ritter (Triple-A): 2-for-5, HR (9), 2B, 5 RBI, 2 runs scored

• RF Alex Ramírez (No. 16 prospect, Double-A): 2-for-5, 2B, 3 RBI, run scored
  

BOX SCORES

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

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Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (21-30) vs. Giants (27-26)

Where: Citi Field — Flushing, NY

Starters: LHP Sean Manaea (3-1, 3.11 ERA) vs. RHP Logan Webb (4-4, 3.03 ERA)

When: 1:40 PM EDT

Where to Watch: WPIX

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Rotten to the core ✍️

“There’s losing, and then there’s what’s happening here.”

Those were the words of a prophetic Ron Darling as a dejected broadcast booth tried to make sense of the latest Mets meltdown. In what seems to have become a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point, New York somehow managed to lose their fifth straight game on Saturday afternoon.

This loss was only just the latest in a long slog of embarrassing losing efforts, however, as the Mets have not only lost five straight and eight of their last 10, but they have baseball’s worst record since April 21st with at a paltry 9-22.

Despite Memorial Day still being a day ahead of us, fans of this baseball team have already become numb to the losing. Being a Mets fan often breeds emotion callouses, and those have appeared to grow earlier than usual this season.

“The sun will come up tomorrow, as difficult as that may be to realize,” play-by-play man Gary Cohen said at the conclusion of Saturday’s loss.

Those are normally the words you’d hear after a loved one was eulogized, but in this case it would seem that the only thing being laid to rest was the hopes of a competitive baseball season.

There are so many issues that run deep within this organization that come with complexities and greater context, but when the losing reaches this level (yet again) you have to take a long, hard look at this core.

I respect my fellow Just Mets co-creator Michael Baron’s opinions more than anyone, but I disagree with his assessments earlier this week. At this point we are well beyond “just play better,” and if we’re being real I think we may have been beyond that even before this season began. There comes a time with every organization in sports when you have to ask yourself the hard questions and look within to see if your franchise truly has a winning DNA.

For these Mets and this core, they simply do not.

This is not a gut reaction or a WFAN hot take, but rather a harsh reality. New York’s core made up of Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil have been together since 2019, with Francisco Lindor joining them one season later. In that time the Mets have made the playoffs just once, won zero playoff series and have had a losing record three times. This season will make it four losing seasons out of six.

When you look at teams that do special things in sports, they often become more than the sum of their own parts. Look no further than this year’s Knicks, for example. No one would have expected that roster to be as productive as they were, especially with the unbelievable amount of injuries they dealt with all season long, and yet they were somehow able to band together to create something better than their individual selves. That is what winning teams do, that is what winning cultures do. The Mets, on the other hand, almost always somehow manage to be worse than the sum of their parts. How many times over these last five-plus seasons can you remember so many of their star players somehow managing to perform below their baseball cards? For the team to have a far worse record than any statistic or prior season would indicate?

That, to me, is emblematic of a franchise that is saddled with a losing culture. And while it may not be enjoyable or seem fair to say it, it’s because the Mets have built their team with a lot of losing players. At worst, these players do not gel together in a way that is conducive to winning.

We gave him grief for it at the time, but perhaps Tommy Pham was right when he said the Mets have the least hard-working position players he’s ever seen last year. This is the same group, after all that has famously been more willing to have brawls with each other before going after players on other teams, have started a thumbs down war with their own fans, and pompously tried to downplay a second-half collapse in 2021 with the classic “we got this” quote.

In order to become a healthier organization, you have to be able to diagnose the problem. For the New York Mets, the time has come to admit the obvious: the apple is rotten to the core.

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Around the League 🚩

• Yankees OF Aaron Judge homered in his 4th straight game as the Bombers beat the Padres, 4-1

• The Phillies scored six runs in the 9th inning for an exciting comeback victory against the Rockies

• Guardians 3B José Ramírez homered as the club won their 8th consecutive game

• The Royals matched Cleveland’s winning streak with their 8th straight victory, outlasting the Rays in extra innings