NEW YORK -- It defies logic, of course.
Over their past seven games, the Mets have blown 11 leads. They have blown leads as big as six runs (once) and as small as one (six times). They have blown leads at home and on the road, in white uniforms and in gray and in black. They have blown leads early. They have blown leads late. Their starters have blown leads, and so have their relievers. Over those seven games, the Mets have held a dozen leads in total and blown all but one of them.
Upon coughing up two more leads in an 11-9 loss to the Mariners at Citi Field on Friday night, the Mets became just the second Queens team in 17 years to blow one in seven consecutive games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The only other time it happened was in 2023 -- a year that saw New York engage in one of the most exhaustive Trade Deadline selloffs in Major League history.
“I’m not sure I have an answer for that,” said reliever Brooks Raley, who took the loss after allowing three runs in the seventh. “I haven’t seen anything like this. I’ve been playing a long time.”
For now, the Mets continue to cling to the final National League Wild Card spot -- a respite that the Reds granted them by atomizing a seven-run advantage of their own against the Brewers. But if the Mets blow many additional leads going forward, they’ll eventually flounder the most significant one of all -- the sizable margin they once held in the NL playoff race.
“At the end of the day, no one’s going to feel sorry for us,” starting pitcher Sean Manaea said. “So we’ve just got to figure it out.”
This is hardly what the Mets envisioned when they acquired leverage relievers Ryan Helsley, Tyler Rogers and Gregory Soto before last month’s Trade Deadline. At the time, team officials believed that trio could transform their bullpen into one of baseball’s best, papering over whatever deficiencies might have existed in the rotation.
While Rogers and Soto have performed well enough, Helsley has allowed nine runs (five earned) over 5 1/3 innings. On Friday, he entered in the seventh inning of a one-run game, faced three batters and allowed a pair of doubles. The second of those tied the game before Raley coughed up four additional runs, one of which was charged to Helsley.
“Right now, the bullpen is kind of feeling it,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We’ve got to get the pieces back together and continue to keep going, because we’ve got no choice. Those are the guys, and we believe in them. I know it’s hard right now, and they’re frustrated. But our job is to continue to help them.”
In fairness, it’s not just Mets relievers who have blown leads. Staked to a one-run advantage in the second inning Friday, Manaea immediately gave it back. Kodai Senga blew a lead against the Braves on Thursday. David Peterson squandered one the day before. Clay Holmes frittered one away the day before that in a game that New York won.
It’s also not just New York’s pitchers who are culpable. On many occasions, Mets hitters have provided early leads only to abruptly stop scoring. While that wasn’t quite the case on Friday -- Francisco Alvarez hit a three-run homer in the eighth to tighten the final margin -- few would accuse New York’s offense of firing on all cylinders.
“You’ve got to climb the mountain,” shortstop Francisco Lindor said, sharing his teammates’ confusion about the issues facing them. “Right now, we’re in a very steep part of it. If we don’t get ourselves together and we don’t push ourselves to be better day in and day out, the mountain is going to be tough to climb.”
Lindor and others insisted that behind the scenes, Mets players are doing all the right things, preparing in all the right ways. Mendoza once again pointed to the talent on his roster as evidence that things must eventually change.
New York does feature prime-aged All-Stars up and down its lineup, in its rotation and throughout the bullpen. Yet in recent weeks, those players have mostly taken turns contributing to losses. Overall, the Mets have dropped 14 of 16. Since June 13, they’ve gone 19-34. Only the Nationals have been worse over that stretch.
“I know we’re way better than this,” Manaea said.
This has become the new normal in Flushing. By the eighth inning Friday, $34 million starter-turned-reliever Frankie Montas was on the mound in a low-leverage spot. He allowed one run over two shaky innings, but by that point, it didn’t much matter.
The Mets no longer had a lead to blow.