PHILADELPHIA -- The losses are piling up now for the Mets, seven in a row, more than they’ve had at any point over the last two calendar years. Their 10-2 defeat at the hands of the Phillies on Friday knocked them out of first place for the first time since May. Whatever goodwill the Mets bought themselves with a superlative first two months of the season is rapidly evaporating.
“This is not good,” shortstop Francisco Lindor said. “This is not good at all. But it’s adversity that we all have to go through at some point in the year.”
At the Mets’ lowest point of last season, it was Lindor who called together the clubhouse for a team meeting, which played a notable role in sparking the club. But that sort of thing has to happen “organically,” Lindor said late Friday, indicating the Mets aren’t quite there yet.
“It’s not about slamming things,” Lindor said. “It’s nothing like that.”
So what is it, then? Where do the Mets go from here? Earlier this week, outfielder Brandon Nimmo suggested that improvement must begin with a single good at-bat, a solid bit of discipline. Those sparks can ignite into something bigger and better, until suddenly the whole thing is aflame.
It seemed like that might have been happening in the sixth inning at Citizens Bank Park, after the Mets drove up Zack Wheeler’s pitch count enough to force the perennial Cy Young candidate from the game. Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil greeted the first man out of the bullpen, Taijuan Walker, with back-to-back homers to tie the score at 2. But New York could add nothing more, and an inning and a half later, the Phillies assailed Reed Garrett and Justin Garza for a six-run rally.
The Mets never threatened again, their final 11 batters going down in order.
“The funny thing about baseball is it’s nine innings,” Alonso said. “Every moment, whether it’s good or bad, is fleeting in baseball because you have to play a complete nine innings. And tonight, I don’t think we played a full baseball game.”
Those seeking excuses need look no further than the starting rotation, which still leads the Majors in ERA but not nearly by the margin it once did. Over their last six games, Mets starters have produced a 6.67 ERA, which ranks near the very bottom of the Majors.
It’s no secret why. In the past eight days alone, the Mets have placed both Kodai Senga and Tylor Megill on the injured list, watched Griffin Canning and Paul Blackburn regress, and fretted over Frankie Montas’ unsuccessful rehab assignment. At around 10 p.m. on Thursday night, rookie Blade Tidwell was settling in to play a game of Fortnite in his Syracuse, N.Y., apartment when he received a call that he’d be starting the next day. He and his girlfriend jumped in his car and sped south down I-81, reaching Philadelphia in the wee hours of Friday morning.
Tidwell’s subsequent struggles were a symptom of the problem, not the root cause. He was Plan C to start the game, after Megill and Justin Hagenman, whom the Mets had pressed into emergency relief one night before. If anything, Tidwell performed about as well as Mets officials had hoped on a tight pitch count, limiting the Phillies to two runs in a no-decision.
The real problem, Lindor said, starts with him. The shortstop and de facto captain is mired in an 0-for-19 slump, evoking some of his early-season struggles of years past. But Lindor is not alone. Alonso’s homer was his first in 41 plate appearances. Juan Soto, Brandon Nimmo and McNeil have had their moments, but none of them are carrying the team. Young players like Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio and Francisco Alvarez haven’t contributed much. Garrett’s ERA has nearly quadrupled over the past two weeks, and the Mets have been shuttling fresh pitchers in and out on a near-daily basis.
“Everything is happening at the same time,” manager Carlos Mendoza said.
The last time the Mets dropped seven in a row was June 2-9, 2023. The last time they lost eight straight was back in 2018.
How they respond to this latest stretch will go a long way toward determining what type of team they can ultimately become.
“Obviously, it kind of stinks going through it -- no doubt,” Alonso said. “I’m sure people watching, it’s not necessarily fun to watch. It’s not fun doing it, I can promise you that. But for us, we just need to be better on all sides of the ball.”