The Mets’ season continued to stagnate through late May.
What followed was a six-week surge that boosted their postseason dreams.
Now the glamour has given way to mediocrity, or worse, that threatens to bury the Mets, who travel next week to face the Padres and Diamondbacks, who lead the National League wild-card race.
Before the Mets suffered a brutal 7-6 loss to the Athletics at Citi Field on Thursday, dropping to 13-13 since the All-Star break, president of baseball operations David Stearns remained bullish about the team’s chances of making the postseason.
What is the source of his optimism?
“I think we’re a good team,” Stearns said, “and I think we’ve proven that. There were times this season where we played like the best team in baseball, and I think we can do that again.”
You need to get started right away.
The Mets have played three series against AL West teams over the past two weeks and lost each, finishing with 2-7 records against the Angels, Mariners and Athletics, including a series win in Colorado.
On their last trip, the offense was an issue. Then the Mets homered and started to score runs, but the pitching staff let them down. Sound familiar? The same thing happened in May, and the Mets fell to 11 games below .500.
J.D. Martinez, one of the Mets players who underperformed since the All-Star break, said the team has taken a “who cares” mentality in trying to turn its season around. That topic came up again among his teammates this week, he said.
“That was it. [before]“Just have fun with it,” Martinez said. “It just snowballed and all of a sudden I got to this point, I made a couple of trades, things were looking up and then all of a sudden there was a little bit more pressure.
“One of the things we’ve talked about is this mentality of, ‘Who cares?’ If we win, we win, if we lose, what does it matter? That’s what got us here. We just have to hang in there until the end of the season.”
Jose Quintana was a symbol of the team’s midseason rise after a few weeks of recovery and leading the starting rotation, but he has also recently become a symbol of the team’s struggles.
The left-hander walked two batters to load the bases in the fourth inning before J.J. Brady slammed his first pitch into the right-field stands for a grand slam. Quintana squandered most of the five-run lead he was given as the Athletics came from behind to win the game behind Huascar Brazovan and Reid Garrett.
In the end, the Mets walked 11 batters and allowed one hit. Their pitchers led the National League with 479 walks this season.
“We need to dig deep and see what’s going on here,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “When we struggled earlier in the year, one of the main issues was too many walks and too many uncompetitive pitches.”
The Mets have scored 19 points through three games, an encouraging sign after a near shutout loss in a weekend series at Seattle, but can the Mets put this together for sustained success?
One of the few players who has been consistent is Mark Vientos, who hit two home runs on Thursday and has a .908 OPS over his past 44 games. With Brandon Nimmo out with gastroenteritis, he batted second for the first time this season.
The illness could be the perfect reset point for Nimmo, who has struggled overall since the All-Star break, going just 1-for-21 over his last six games.
Before the Mets began their season rebuild, Mendoza made some changes to the lineup, moving struggling Francisco Lindor to leadoff and Nimmo to second or third base. It makes you wonder if Nimmo would benefit from batting lower in the order and leaving Vientos at second base.
Mendoza said it’s something that will be considered.
Stearns declined to say how many wins the Mets need to reach the postseason, but for now, he’s more interested in getting back-to-back wins and staying in the running for the championship.
“I think by mid-September we’ll have a little bit more of an idea of what’s going on around us,” Stearns said.
The Mets can only hope that it all makes sense by mid-September.
