ATLANTA, GA – JUNE 19: Atlanta Braves Mascot Blooper sits on the field with New York Mets first … More
Turns out we didn’t have to worry at all about the Mets’ DNA changing with the signing of Juan Soto. They’re still New York’s quirkier and more fun alternative to the ever-staid Yankees. Citi Field is still the Big Apple’s more joyful baseball venue.
And even with Soto, the Mets are still prone to traveling a rollercoaster of dizzying highs and lows — especially lows experienced in Atlanta.
The Mets once again went all Barney knocking over the pancake syrup this week, when they were swept by the Braves in Atlanta for approximately the 700th time since the teams became division rivals in 1994.
OK, fine, it’s only 17 times. But that’s a whole lot of sweeps, starting July 3-5, 1998 — fewer than two months into the Mike Piazza Era and more than three months before Soto was born — and going through last night, when Soto collected his 1,000th career hit in the Mets’ 7-1 loss.
The sweep by the Braves, coupled with the Phillies taking three of four from the Marlins, dropped the Mets into a tie for first with their brotherly love foes heading into this weekend’s series in Philadelphia. The Mets led the Phillies by 5 1/2 games just eight days ago, which is a bends-inducing descent that might even make the 2007 Mets wince.
“It’s definitely not ideal, I think we know that,” Clay Holmes said Thursday night.
For the Mets, the concerns are more of the immediate variety than the historical kind. The Braves might use this sweep as a jumping off point to once again topple the Mets at the wire — they are the Braves, after all!
But all Atlanta did this week was save its season. The Braves are 34-39, 10 games behind the Mets and Phillies, and closer to last place in the NL East (five games ahead of the Marlins) than to the last wild card spot (5 1/2 games back of the Padres).
The Mets are in a much better short-term spot, but with no shortage of accompanying worries now that their foundational cracks are spreading at a rapid pace.
Since the last time the Mets won a game, they’ve placed two-fifths of their starting rotation on the injured list and lost reliever Max Kranick to an elbow injury. The initial replacements for Kodai Senga and Tylor Megill are Paul Blackburn, who has a 6.92 ERA in four games this season, and Blake Tidwell, who has a 4.58 ERA in seven games at Syracuse since losing his big league debut May 4.
The next candidate to fill Megill’s spot is likely Frankie Montas, who posted a 12.05 ERA during his rehab. Even by Mets standards, they from having too much pitching to wondering if Adam Wilk might be available for a spot start awfully fast.
The remainder of the staff, outside of the still-ascending David Peterson and closer Edwin Diaz, is starting to show some wear and tear as well. Holmes, who exited with a 5-1 lead last Friday after five innings and 79 pitches in his first post-Coors Field start and six batters Thursday night, might be feeling the effects of reaching a career-high in innings before the first day of summer. Griffin Canning has a 6.75 ERA in his last five outings.
The Mets still have the best ERA in the majors at 3.08, but their month-by-month ERAs are creeping up — from 2.64 in March and April to 3.15 in May and 3.76 so far in June.
“The starting pitching right now — they’ve been so good the whole year, pretty much carried us all the way to this point,” Carlos Mendoza said. “You lose a couple guys that were consistently throwing the ball well and some of the other guys (have) a couple of bad outings — it happens, we’re gong through a stretch right now.”
The Mets have been particularly hot and cold on offense. With 29 homers in June — a month that began with nine wins in 11 games and sweeps of the Rockies and Nationals — the Mets are one round-tripper shy of matching their total for May. Yet they have scored five runs and been blanked twice in their last four games.
The Mets are hitting .223 with runners on base, which would be the lowest such average in team history — even worse than the 1962 and 1963 teams, each of whom hit .226 in those situations. The Mets are also hitting .216 with runners in scoring position, which would be the lowest figure for the team since the strike-shortened 1981 season.
The numbers get drastically worse upon subtracting the production of Pete Alonso, who is batting .319 with runners on and .338 with runners in scoring position. Without Alonso, the Mets’ averages drop to .208 and .198, respectively. Good thing they finally re-signed him!
To be fair to the Mets, extremes are built into the modern game. The Yankees were shut out in three straight games this week and scored seven runs in the seven games prior to Thursday’s 7-3 win over the Angels.
“Really, all it takes is winning one game,” Brandon Nimmo said Thursday night. “And the you win another one and it’s a winning streak. It happens quickly.”
But maybe not as quickly as the Mets would prefer. The only other opponent that’s swept the Mets at home as many as 10 times since the 1994 realignment is…that’s right, the Phillies, who send old friend Zack Wheeler to the mound tonight.
