You thought that was rock bottom? Mets sink further as homers continue to doom pitching staff

The Mets season continues to sink to their lowest depths with a series loss to the last place Cardinals. Plus, New York's pitchers can't stop allowing homers.

Today we recognize and celebrate Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the emancipation of slaves in the United States. To learn more about Juneteenth, visit the Smithsonian NMAAHC at nmaahc.si.edu/juneteenth

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What’s Up with the Mets? ✊🏿

• The Mets dropped another series after losing to the Cardinals on Sunday, 8-7 (box)

• RHP Carlos Carrasco had yet another disappointing start, allowing six runs (five earned) over just three innings

• DH Tommy Pham continued his hot stretch, going 1-for-4 with a two-run home run (7)

• SS Francisco Lindor clubbed his 13th home run of the season in the loss

• 1B Pete Alonso went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in his return to the lineup

• RHP Adam Ottavino was brought into the game in the 9th inning to face the heart of the Cardinals lineup, and promptly served up a game-winning home run to Nolan Arenado

• The Mets have now lost or split five consecutive series, and are 3-11 in their last 14 games

• New York’s next seven series come against teams who sit above them in the standings (Astros, Phillies, Brewers, Giants, Dbacks, Padres, Dodgers)

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Who’s Hot 🔥

• OF Tommy Pham is now hitting .340/.382/.740 with four home runs, six doubles, a triple, 17 RBI, nine runs scored and a 1.122 OPS in his last 15 games

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Today’s Game 🗓

Match-up: Mets (33-38) at Astros (39-33)

Where: Minute Maid Park – Houston, TX

Starters: RHP Max Scherzer (5-2, 4.45 ERA) vs RHP Hunter Brown (6-3, 3.35 ERA)

When: 8:10 PM EDT

Where to Watch: SNY, MLB Network

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Mets pitchers can’t stop giving up home runs… ✍️

“And that ball is outta here…”

That is a sentence Mets fans are more than familiar with from SNY play-by-play announcer Gary Cohen over the last 20 years. It can come in the most scintillating of moments when it is a call for the home team but also has another, more somber side to it when it’s the other team that has left the yard – especially in big moments.

If it feels like there’s been far more of the latter this season, it’s because it has been.

Sunday’s loss to the lowly Cardinals — yet another series defeat for the Mets — continued many trends for this continuously sinking club. When they pitch they don’t hit, when they hit they don’t pitch, they rarely play crisp games in the field or on the base paths and man, doesn’t it feel like they give up a lot of big home runs?

This most recent loss featured four long balls by the opposition, the last of which was the final blow as Nolan Arenado teed off against Adam Ottavino in a previously tie game in the 9th inning for the game’s final run. For Ottavino that is already the fifth home run he’s allowed this season in just 28.1 innings of relief work, giving him a 1.6 home runs per nine innings ratio on the season – double his mark of 0.8 from last season.

But this isn’t just an Adam Ottavino problem. No, in fact the Mets as a whole – starters and relievers – have been bitten by the long ball more than just about anyone during the 2023 season.

New York’s pitching staff is allowing 1.46 home runs per nine innings this season, which ranks as the second-worst mark in all of baseball. They are allowing 0.3 home runs more than the Rockies who play their home games in Coors Field, and just the woeful Oakland A’s – who have a team ERA of 6.05 – have a worst mark than the Mets.

Overall on the season, Mets pitchers have allowed an even 100 home runs while their offense has hit just 85 (and that’s with Pete Alonso accounting for 22 of them!)

It should go without saying, but giving up an abundance of home runs is a bad thing and a hard challenge to overcome. Unlike long, sustained rallies they can change a game in the blink of an eye and one, single pitch could make the difference in a game. So far this year, that has been the case for the Mets time-and-time again as they’ve continuously fallen victim to the home run ball.

This is especially alarming considering that the Mets play in what is still viewed as one of the better pitcher’s parks in the league. Even with the incremental fence changes over the last decade, no one would ever consider Citi Field to be a band box in any way.

So far this season, only six pitching staffs in the league have allowed 93 or more home runs. The combined records of those six teams is 178-257 (79 games under .500) with four of those teams sitting in last place, one of them being the Blue Jays (the only team of the bunch with a winning record) and the other being the Mets.

No matter how you slice it, the Mets pitching staff really has been abysmal at keeping the ball in the yard this season. Even trying to identify if one unit struggled more than others, the team comes up small. New York starters are allowing 1.51 home runs per nine this season (fourth-worst in all of baseball), while their bullpen is allowing 1.39 home runs per nine which is tied for the worst mark in the league.

It’s happened consistently throughout this season – the team is either constantly playing from behind because of first inning home runs or in the games they do keep it close, the bullpen is serving it up at the end. It’s not a sustainable way to win baseball games and thus far this season, the Mets haven’t exactly been doing much of that.

With all of the problems this team is facing, this may be a bigger issue than all of them. You just can’t allow more home runs than you hit and expect to be a good team. Sometimes, it’s as simple as that.

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Around the League 🚩

• The Reds went to extra innings against against the Astros to extend their eight-game winning streak

• Angels RHP/DH Shohei Ohtani continued his ridiculous tear, hitting his league-leading 24th home run in the club’s 5-2 win over the Royals

• The Red Sox swept the Yankees in a doubleheader at Fenway Park on Sunday

• Giants RHP Logan Webb pitched a gem as San Francisco swept the Dodgers and passed them in the NL West standings

• The top of the NL East has heated up as the Braves and Phillies have each won six straight games while the Marlins have won four straight