Where is the Mets' heart and soul?

Following another crushing loss, the Mets are showing a real lack of fight and urgency...

Corey Sipkin - NY Post

What’s up with the Mets? ⚾️

• The Mets dropped their fifth consecutive loss after losing 11-3 to the Phillies on Wednesday night (box)

• Starting pitching was an issue again as RHP Clay Holmes allowed four earned runs on six hits over four innings with five strikeouts and three walks

• LHP Gregory Soto and RHP Ryan Helsley combined to give up six earned runs on seven hits as the bullpen struggled yet again

• RF Juan Soto was the only bright note for New York - again - finishing 3-for-5 with a homer, a double, two runs scored, a RBI, and his 31st stolen base of the year

• The Mets went 3-for-9 with runners in scoring position, leaving eight runners stranded on base

• New York has now been outscored 21-6 by the Phillies in the first three games of this series

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Injury Updates 🏥

• OF Jesse Winker (back inflammation) will officially miss the rest of the 2025 season and is still currently seeking multiple opinions on his back

• RHP Tylor Megill (elbow strain) is still waiting for his MRI results, but is also getting multiple opinions on his elbow

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Playoff Race 🏁

There is officially no more margin for error for the New York Mets anymore.

Having dropped three straight to the Phillies, any hopes of getting back into the NL East race are all but over. The Mets now sit a full 10 games behind the Phillies with 16 left to play.

The Wild Card picture also looks grim today.

While the Giants also lost on Wednesday, the Reds beat the Padres, meaning that the Mets hold just a two-game lead over both Cincinnati and San Francisco for the final Wild Card spot in the National League. Furthermore, following their win over the Giants, the Diamondbacks are only 3.5 games back, adding another layer of intrigue to the race for that final Wild Card berth.

To remind you all, the Mets hold the tiebreaker over both the Giants and the Diamondbacks. However, the Reds have possession of the tiebreaker over New York.

In that scenario, if the Mets and the Reds finish in a tie, the Reds would either receive a higher seed or eliminate the Mets.

If the Mets and Giants, and/or the Mets and Cardinals, finish in a tie, the Mets would receive the higher seed or eliminate the Giants/Cardinals.

Because the Mets and the Diamondbacks tied their season series 3-3, the tiebreaker would be determined by their records against their own divisions at the end of the season. You can check out the full set of rules here for more clarity.

Per Fangraphs, the Mets have a 83.1% chance of making the 2025 playoffs, down from 89.3% on Wednesday.

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Play of the Game 🙃

I was almost spoilt by choice when it came to picking just one sequence for today’s POTG.

After all, the Mets committed a slew of cardinal sins on the way to losing a fifth consecutive game on Wednesday.

However, one play was all I had, so I opted to go with Clay Holmes’ last act in the fifth inning.

With no outs and a runner on base in a one-run game, Holmes gave up an RBI double to Brandon Marsh. Juan Soto’s less than stellar work in right field also allowed the runner plenty of time to get home to score.

Those sequences of events ensured the Phillies stretched their lead and saw Holmes leave the game, with the home team only adding more runs to their lead from that point on.

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Who’s Hot? 🥵

• Over his last six games, RF Juan Soto is hitting .375/.444/.708/.1.153 with two home runs, two doubles, three walks, four stolen bases, four runs scored, and four RBIs

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Who’s Cold? 🥶

• The Mets have now lost three of their last four series, going 4-9 during that stretch

• The Mets are now 31-46 since June 13 - only the Rockies, Twins, and Nationals have worst records over that stretch

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Down on the Farm 🌾

• RHP Jack Wenninger (No. 13 prospect, Double-A): 8 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 1 HR

• C Chris Suero (No. 15 prospect, Double-A): 1-for-5, 2B, 2 R, SB

• RHP Jose Chirinos (Single-A): 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K

• OF Simon Juan (Single-A): 2-for-4, R

SCORES

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

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Today’s Game 🗓️

Match-up: Mets (76-70) at Phillies (86-60)

Where: Citizens Bank Park - Philadelphia, PA

Starters: LHP David Peterson (9-5, 3.72 ERA) vs. LHP Jesús Luzardo (13-6, 4.01 ERA)

When: 7:15 PM EDT

Where to Watch: FOX

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Where is the fight and urgency? ✍️

Corey Sipkin - NY Post

Forget the atrocious starting pitching.

Forget the overused and misused bullpen.

Even forget the hit-and-miss offense.

The most alarming flaw the New York Mets have right now is a lack of fight.

I mean, just where is the urgency and the steely desire to win right now?

It’s down the tubes. That’s where it is.

In the wake of another ugly loss in Philadelphia, on a night when the starting pitching laid another egg, the bullpen couldn’t hold it down, and the entire offense - outside of Juan Soto - remained ice cold - the lack of mental toughness and the absence of a desire to roll up the sleeves and battle was the most glaring takeaway.

Yes, manager Carlos Mendoza can keep singing the same old sorry song about how much talent there is in that room. He is obviously inclined to keep stressing that his team just needs to keep fighting.

But, at some point, that same old tune gets boring. Because, without meaningful actions, words are just empty promises that disappear into thin air.

And I think we’re all sick of hearing those words now.

Brandon Nimmo may have taken talking out of your butt to the next level by telling the New York Post prior to Wednesday’s game that “there are a lot of teams hoping we don’t make the playoffs.” Nimmo added that he knows for a fact there are teams who don’t want to go up against the Mets in the postseason.

I would love to know who those teams are because, as of right now, I would think every single team in contention would love to face this group in October.

I mean, is Nimmo actually being serious? I know as a leader of this team that he has to remain positive to a point but, come on, don’t insult your fans with utter nonsense.

This is not a scary team right now. And the Mets have been the exact opposite of formidable for a significant stretch now. For instance, they’ve lost 46 of their last 77 games. Furthermore, since June 13, the Mets are one of the worst teams in all of baseball. Only the lowly Rockies, Twins, and Nationals have worse records.

That isn’t a small sample size, either.

However, what really makes this team anything but scary is the lack of heart and fight on a night-to-night basis.

Yes, it is hard to win games when your starting pitching constantly puts you in a hole. Yes, it is difficult to have a consistently good team when the offense goes from one extreme to the other on a regular basis. And, yes, it is almost impossible to stack up wins when an overused bullpen blows games.

But, and I’m very strong in my conviction when saying this, it is the lack of energy and the complete absence of any kind of heart that is killing this team.

I don’t want to make a blanket statement by saying the players don’t care, because I’m sure they do. And, in any case, that’s just a cheap shot I can’t back up with any kind of hard evidence.

With that said though, this team is just uber non-competitive and there is no tangible pulse. When the going gets tough, they shatter into a million tiny pieces instantly without any hint of any kind of pushback.

There is no bending with this current group.

The players just don’t seem locked in, they make careless errors after careless errors way too often, and the entire team seems content with resting on their talent and hoping that will save them.

At this point, I don’t think it will.

Corey Sipkin - NY Post

The clear lack of urgency is also deeply concerning. I mean, the Mets have been beaten around like a lifeless animal over the last three games in Philadelphia, offering no resistance whatsoever. That’s despite the fact that the Giants and the once-again-surging Reds are just two games back in the race for the final Wild Card spot in the National League.

The Mets entered Wednesday with an 89.3% chance of making the playoffs. Today, those odds have plummeted to 83.1%.

Despite holding the door wide open for their rivals, this team just doesn’t seem to understand the magnitude of their current plight. If they keep drifting aimlessly into oblivion, there won’t be any October baseball to save this group from the embarrassment of a lost season.

You’d think the pressure of not falling flat on their face after signing Soto would be motivation and pressure alone to get their act together and start playing like a contender.

But, no, not even the looming disaster of playing a part in one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history seems to motivate this group.

And, if that doesn’t, what will?

Of course, one can make the argument that missing the playoffs would force the front office into fixing this team’s many flaws. The starting pitching is at the top of that list, obviously, but a lack of clutch hitting and poor defense should be major priorities too.

How do you go about fixing a lack of heart, though?

Because, again, this team’s reluctance to strap on their big boy pants and fight to the death is the real problem.

This team is almost playing like their season is already over. And that’s beyond alarming.

Forget all the other bugaboos hurting this team.

Unless the 2025 Mets can rediscover their heart and soul, and start playing with a lot of fight and underbelly, then this season is truly lost. And maybe next year too.

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Around the League 🚩

• Pirates RHP Paul Skenes entered rarified air on Wednesday after striking out 200 batters in a single season

• RHP Jack Flaherty tossed five innings of scoreless ball with seven strikeouts to lead the Tigers to an 11-1 win over the Yankees

• LHP Blake Snell struckout a season-high 11 across six scoreless innings as the Dodgers shutout the Rockies, 9-0 to secure the series sweep

• Veteran INF Leo Rivas blasted a walk-off two-run homer in the 13th inning to help the Mariners beat the Cardinals, 4-2 and secure a fifth straight win

• LHP Andrew Abbott twirled eight innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts to help the Reds beat the Padres, 2-1 in a huge, huge win